The Bihar Clock Tower

The Buddha came to Bihar in search of inner peace—and found it beneath a tree. Today, in the spiritually awakened town of Bihar Sharif, we too have found a monument that urges us to slow down, detach from worldly concerns, and maybe just give up on time altogether: a ?40 lakh Smart City clock tower that stopped working within 24 hours of being unveiled.

Truly, this is not a malfunction. It is a message.

Inaugurated with great pomp during the chief minister’s Pragati Yatra—a journey whose name means “progress”—the tower now stands as a hauntingly motionless symbol of stillness, silence, and sublime surrender. Time may be money, but Bihar has chosen moksha.

Some call the tower an eyesore. Others say it looks like something left behind by Soviet architects who were really into cement and sadness. But to the truly enlightened, it is a spiritual installation. A Zen koan in scaffolding. A monument that dares to ask: what if time… just vibes?

Yes, thieves did steal the copper wiring within hours. But were they criminals—or were they ascetics liberating the tower from the capitalist tyranny of function? Like Siddhartha renouncing gold for good karma, the clock shed its wiring and its worldly obligations. It has transcended the petty tick-tock of mortals. It no longer tells time—it questions it.

Like Oscar Wilde dipped in concrete and sprinkled with cow dust, the Bihar clock tower mocks our addiction to productivity, our struggle to hustle. It scoffs at your Google Calendar. In a world obsessed with hustle, Bihar has created a giant stone middle finger to deadlines.

Call it postmodern. Call it prophetic. Call it government-funded performance art. Whatever you name it, this broken clock is not broken—it is enlightened. It is right twice a day, but it is free all the time. Read more.