First Night Out

With a German-born and German-university engineering graduate of Indian descent who's returned to Bangalore to take advantage of the new global economy, I toured the downtown pedestrian area where the Mahatma Ghandi Road and Brigade intersect. On Sunday night, one day in advance of the big water-related strike, the streets were packed with people window shopping and eating ice cream cones. The women, in particular, in brightly colored sarees (each one uses 5-7 meters of fabric), walking in groups and licking their cones, made a charming picture (but one I could not capture in the low light). The highlight had to be the enormous crowd at the Bangalore Central Department Store, which was having a "Happiness Sale" with everything 2-for-1. Bloomingdales and Macy's don't see crowds like this even on Christmas Eve. The prospect of actually shopping was simply too daunting for me, a dedicated shopper. After a good dinner (not better than the Indian restaurants in downtown Washington, though), I returned to the hotel to try and make sense out of the strike called for Monday February 12.

Apparently there is a long-running dispute between the State of Karnakata (where Bangalore is located) and neighboring Tamil Nadu about allocation of water, and recently, the Cauvery Water Tribunal decided in favor of Tamil Nadu in allocating the water from the Cauvery River. To prevent any violence, which occurred 15 years ago for similar reasons of a water dispute, the government has called out 70,000 police, military and other forces to protect the city today. The railroad authority has also called a strike. My young friend Tom said that keeping cars off the road would prevent attacks on those with Tamil Nadu license tags (indicated by TN). The hotel has closed its gates and although I have not left the property today, I have seen a few cars drive by on the main road (Sankey Road) so the ban on cars is not absolute. I will watch for more developments on the amazingly large screen TV in the hotel room.