In the bustling wilderness of the world, where once gigantic dinosaurs roamed and early man struggled to light a fire, there lived an old codger named Patna. An old-timer, older than your grandparents' tales of "back in my day," Patna has seen it all, leaving Time itself in a whirl of bewilderment and disbelief. This is a story of a city, wrapped in a paradox, an enigma, teaching the Master of Ages - Time - a lesson or two. The city of Patna, with its cane in hand, a mound of laughing wrinkles, and eyes full of tales, sits comfortably in its armchair, its age concealed amidst the dusty, cobbled streets and ancient hidden alleys. A city so good at the ageing game, it even renamed itself a few times - Pataliputra one day, Azimabad another, until it eventually settled on Patna. In the dawn of history, Patna was the idyllocratic teenager who hung out with the cool dudes of ancient history: the Mauryans, the Shungas, the Guptas. When asked how it felt to be the capital of such mighty realms, Patna, over a cup of chai, would modestly say - "Just another millennium in the office." For a pastime, Patna engaged itself in spiritual dealings, mesmerizing the likes of Buddha and Mahavira, resulting in a religious hot pot: a goulash of philosophy, spirituality and peace keeping the city warm in the frosty winds of changing ages. In the meet and greet of world religions, Patna played the perfect host whilst chuckling at the irony of having its peace disrupted by the dispute over peaceful philosophies. Indeed, a beautifully ironic chess game Time played, and Patna knew how to counter each move. As times changed, Patna donned different attires of governance. It was once the favored couturier of the Delhi Sultanate, the Mughals, the Nawabs of Bengal, and even the notorious East India Company. An age-defying, multicultural fashionista, perhaps Yves Saint Laurent could have taken some tips from Patna. The old city, however, didn't lose its charm when the British Raj gate-crashed the party. Showing its rebellious spirit, it fostered educational institutions, stoked the fire of the First War of Independence, and then, casually joined India's Independence movement, as if it hadn't done enough already! Now, as Patna reclines in the post-independence era with a bestseller in one hand and a cup of masala chai in the other, it bursts with an energetic population, standing second only to Kolkata in East India. Patna not just taught a lesson to Time, but left it dizzy with series of punches in humour, rebellion, spiritualism, and perseverance. In essence, Patna is a living testament of the adage, 'Age is just a number.' It’s an aging raconteur spinning three millennia long tales with a laughter that echoes through its ancient archways into the beating heart of India. As it twinkles its old, experienced eyes at the disconcerted face of Time, it whispers the secret: "To teach Time a lesson, you don't race with it; you dance to its tunes while slyly stepping on its toes!"