Remember the cult serial on Doordarshan directed by Prakash Jha, where Everyman Mungeri, played memorably by Raghubir Yadav, twitched his eyes and daydreamt on what should be? If he lived in Jharkhand circa 2010, these would have been his castles

GREEN capital

The dream: No, the roadside chola bhatura is not cooked in adulterated oil. Nor is the vendor dumping plastic plates on the road. In fact, he uses only leaf-plates. Ranchi’s roads look clean. The municipal corporation sweepers are busy in their morning round.

And at 9am on Kanta Toli Chowk, the capital shines like Beijing or Singapore. The roads have widened and tree-lined. Office-goers are cycling, having given up on fancy wheels that guzzle fuel and emit fumes.

At Dangra Toli and Circular Road, ugly shanties are replaced by smart high-rises with water harvesting and solar panels on their terrace. Walls are spotless — no signs of graffiti or betel juice. A mall sports a signboard: “I’m a green building, treat me with care”.

Wake-up call: Roads are filthy and choked with traffic, pollution is killing people softly and the water table is dangerously low

Time to disco

The dream: It is Friday evening and time for Ranchi, Jamshedpur, Dhanbad and Bokaro to party. And discos, pubs and lounges are coming alive, as the young and young-at-heart head to the hangouts. Pulsating rhythm, high wattage music, lip-smacking bites with a variety of cocktails and mocktails. Bartenders and DJs spice up the experience. In fact, nightlife in the cities of Jharkhand can’t get better than this. The best part is that there’s no security threat. Unlike New Delhi, girls can hang out without fear. Law and order is pretty much under control. Families heading home in the wee hours of Sunday morning is a normal feature.

Wake-up call: Dead. That’s the only way to define nightlife in urban Jharkhand. Families dine out and return home by 10pm, as they have been doing for decades. Jharkhand youngsters have no place to chill. A city with a high disposable income like Jamshedpur doesn’t yet have a multiplex. Only criminals and hoodlums enjoy the night

Zip, zap, zoom

The dream: Multi-laned roads, freeways, flyovers. Commuting in Ranchi is sheer pleasure. Though the environment-conscious have taken to cycling to work, people have also discovered the pleasures of driving. Why driving, even walking is a pleasure with broad tree-lined pavements. Street vendors have their separate kiosks.

No need to honk, push, shove or swear. Jams are history. Traffic police, signals and signage make everyone’s life easier.

Wake-up call: Traffic is a nightmare. Ditto roads. Ditto traffic signals. Ditto traffic police. Ditto vendors. In fact, ditto everything

Waterworks

The dream: Mango is now called the Garden of Jamshedpur. Every house has a garden, every high-rise has one on its rooftop. The locality also boasts the city’s first water spa. And people love taking long baths. Water is plentiful, but there’s no waste. Residents are quick to point out the advantages of water harvesting. In fact, though Mango continues to be a real estate hotbed, water table has risen dramatically, thanks to responsible water harvesting and recycling. And Mango Notified Area Committee has played no small part in bringing about this change.

Wake-up call: Dry taps, dying river. And an indiscriminate realty boom that doesn’t care if people bathe or drink water

Spanking clean

The dream: Dhanbad's earning raves for being one of Asia's cleanest cities. And this is the triumph of civic society as well as Dhanbad Municipal Corporation, which has made vigilance a habit. So from morning garbage pick-ups to people preventing others from spitting on roads and walls and schoolchildren asking elders not to deface public property, the city shines with the concern of its civic body and citizens. Not for nothing do tourists come and gape at areas such as Police Lines, Indian School of Mines, Hirapur for their sheer cleanliness. “I’ve been all over the globe, but Dhanbad’s clean quotient ranks right up there with Amsterdam and London,” said a top Bolly star.

Wake-up call: The coal town is, in one word, filthy. Garbage is dumped on roads, open drains smell of unmentionables even in posh localities

Glass brimmeth

The dream: They say you don't sell refrigerators to Eskimos. And you don't sell mineral water and water filters to Chas. The residents of Bokaro's satellite city are proud of their 24-hr drinking water supply. “Pure aqua, straight from the tap,” they smile.

Wake-up call: Acute water crisis since the past six years has left 5 lakh Chas residents high and dry. Meanwhile, the Rs 52crore Chas Drinking Water Supply Scheme, continues to guzzle time and money, but has little to show for it