For many today, Patna exists as two moments in time: ancient Pataliputra, the capital of magnificent empires, and modern Patna, the dingy and dangerous capital of a state synonymous with violent chaos and contagious, criminalized, political dysfunction. “Perhaps unique among my country's most iconic cities,” the Patna-raised writer Amitava Kumar has remarked, “Patna has had glories only in the distant past.” Similarly, a children's book about Indian cities introduces young readers to the seeming contradiction between Patna's storied past and its unromantic present by saying, “This is one city you may have actually read about in great detail in school without necessarily associating it with its present-day avatar as capital of Bihar.”

Some, though, also imagine a future Patna that will shed the burdens of the past and present. The children's book authors optimistically predict Patna's resurgence: “Patna may have lost most of its ancient shine but its dynamism still peeps through occasionally—in the intelligence and resourcefulness of its people. You never know when it may regain its lost glory to become a major commercial and political centre of the region, all over again.” This deferral of hope is echoed in the responses garnered on Facebook by the celebrity architect Hafeez Contractor's renderings of a futuristic “New Patna World City,” full of gleaming skyscrapers emerging from newly reclaimed land in the Ganges.