At least that’s the conclusion of a Tehelka.com story on the reach and use of the Internet in Bihar’s hinterlands, far from the state capital Patna.

Nineteen-year-old Swati Jha is in her final year of BSc, and is an ardent Internet user. “It’s a wonderful world, and life without the Internet would just be dark, dark and dark,” she says.

As elsewhere, chatting, porn and job-hunting seem to be the favorites of surfers in Bihar’s hinterlands too. 

Such is the lure of the Internet that young students like Mohammad Azharuddin from  Haripur Mazrahi village in Kaluwahi township travel 20 kilometers to Madhubani to get online.

“I just cannot afford to stay offline as my friends in Western countries would miss me a lot….The Internet is very much part of my life now. I have bought my iPod from an online store and these days I am examining the features of various Blackberry models on the Net.”

You can read this interesting piece at Tehelka.