Everything was going well until..

After finishing my college at Benaras Hindu University in 1977, I went to Patna, a city in India and stayed with one of my relative's uncle who was a judge in the High Court. Upon settling there, I travelled with Sambhu, my brother to many places on my motorbike to identify a piece of land to purchase. Buddha colony was an upcoming colony at that time and my father always had a wish to settle there.

My uncle's father-in-law, who was a police officer, introduced me to a seller. The area of the land was around 5200 square feet, 4 Kathas (unit of area commonly used in mid 20th centuries in Eastern India) and belonged to a Ram Narayan Singh , a government official of Bihar. That land was free from all incumbents. I consulted with my uncle he referred me to a Naresh Babu, a district judge in Patna. A lot of requirements were closed via references during those times. I went to meet him, and he further referred me to a Siddheshwar Prasad Singh, an eminent civil lawyer of Patna then. I still remember that Siddhi Babu asked me a lot of questions. He cautioned me to think hard before buying that piece of land, and to be careful before investing my father’s money.

Bombarded by too many questions I got a little nervous, but by the end of our discussion, he gave his go ahead to buy that piece of land. The actual rate of the land was around 48,000INR, but I negotiated the deal in 45,000 INR. After completion of all legal formalities, the land got registered on my name. It was just a kilometer away from my uncle's house. I was very happy.

Once the land got registered, we thought of constructing a boundary wall on it. My brother-in-law who was posted in Godda as a Civil Engineer, came to offer help. I also called a guy from Muzaffarpur and asked him to be at the site. I roamed on my bike to place the order for bricks, cement, and sand with the money sent by my father. In those days, cement used to be supplied through the Quota system, in which it cost 25 rupees, or, one could also procure it in the black market for 80 Rupees. Once the material reached the site, I checked everything, and counted every brick (which were in thousands) before awarding the contract. The workers would stay at the site only. On the first day, we had Bhumi Puja and Satya Narayan Puja, and after a few days, construction began. Everything was going well until the owner of the plot opposite to ours came to our construction site and claimed,

"This land is mine. Stop the construction right now!"

Read Part 2 here.