November is a time for celebration in Northern India. The heat and humidity of the long hot summer has dissipated and the first harvest has been gathered. One such celebration is the Sonepur Mela or fair. Billed as the largest livestock fair in Asia, the Sonepur Mela is an annual event held near the confluence of the Ganges and Gandak Rivers and is timed to begin on the full moon of the Hindu month of Kartik Purnima. Sonepur is normally a small rural hamlet, but comes alive every year with the arrival of tens of thousands of visitors and accompanying livestock. Located about 30km outside of Patna, the capital of Bihar, Sonepur belies Bihar’s reputation of being one of the poorest and most lawless states in India. This was my second attempt to get here; the 2006 plan came...