In dry Bihar, the town of Dalkhola, nestled between National Highway 31 and 27 on the Purnea-Kishanganj highway, is an oasis for boozers. They stop here for a peg or two of alcohol and enjoy an overnight stay at the comfortable motels that have sprung up on a 30 km stretch of the highway before journeying on.
Since April 2016, Bihar has been a dry State, with strict penalties of jail time or fines for those violating the ban on liquor. Dalkhola is a municipality town of West Bengal’s Uttar Dinajpur district; just a small portion of the town juts into Bihar. It lies about 37 km north of Bihar’s Purnea, with Kishanganj lying almost the same distance further to the north. As one travels between the two Bihari towns, one suddenly enters little Bengal, hearing Bangla voices, seeing the Bangla script on everything from shop sign boards to vehicle numbers.
