Bangalore Burns

12th April 2006
We were at our new campus on Mysore Road when the news of Rajkumar's death spread.
It happened jus 15mins after we left office at 1:30 pm.

Everyone was contemplating what would happen next. The same way when he was kidnapped by Veerapan, his fans had burnt bangalore. History repeated once again and i guess this time on a large scale.

On our return journey from Mysore road to Bannerghatta road, we could see black smoke coming out from a far distance. We couldnt' guess what had happened. People were burning tyres all along the way, the police was trying to control them, the autowallahs were on a high (asking for more than double or a round figure i guess), Rajkumar's portraits were making hte rounds of the roads with garlands and people shouting slogans.

There was not a single shop open on the whole route. People were asked to head home and thursday was declared a holiday. There were overcrowded buses all the way. Lot of people asking for lifts , searching for a way home, walking the way home!

Since all shops closed down (more due to the violence and less due to mourning), people who eat out regularly at nearby restaurants or darshini's were stranded. I could see a few ten of them but there would lakhs more stranded and without food! They had money to buy food, but there was no one to give food!!
it was the most pathetic situation :-( I wonder what happened to the people stuck in an emergency !! God save them.

Petrol pumps were closed. Along the 20km route i could not see even a pharmacy open!!

It was the worst situation i've seen in bangalore since the last 2 and 1/2 years.

Bangalore the garden city was brought down to a standstill in a matter of minutes!!!

13th April 2006
It was silence on the roads. Govt Buses BMTC were closed. Autos were travelling to smaller distances and were very scanty. Dial a taxi was not working till 5 pm
Cable had cut off channels other than those showing Rajkumar movies. So we were stuck with kannada and news channels.

All News channels were saying that Bangalore was shut down to mourn the death of Rajkumar. But it was quite the contrary. The shops and traffic was shut due to the so called "fans" of Rajkumar.

On ushe tv they were showing, the fans praying their homage to the late actor. Outside, Bangalore burnt. Buses, cars, 2 wheelers were being burnt. "Fans" hit police and later police gave back!! This continued.

We cooked some food for us and got our friends over also.

Till the end of the day it was a day of marathi plays for us.

Finally it was the death of a Police and 4 other people that shocked us. We did have our 1 min of silence for these people.

14th April 2006
Shops have opened. Buses have started. Autos are back. and so is the noise. After yesterday's calm, the storm is back.
Bangalore has started to stand back on its' feet. But like me, there will be a scare till things settle down fully.
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I am yet to come to terms as to why all this happened.
Can the goverment be blamed for all this ? Should any one be blamed ?

Bangalore is one the most hi-tech cities in India. But the crowd didnt' seem to be the one who were fans. They were people who had anger in them. this way was just to let it out. Get our all the frustrations against others. But was this the right time? Who suffered ? The friends and families of these same people must have undergone the misery. But still it wasn't lessened. There was more violence after the first day.

D says " It was the government's mistake. Even after 12hours, there was no control on the situation."
I think it's right. "Situation in control" in a News comment by our CM, equals to "Situation in whose control??" by the conman.

Hope things improve faster than the shutdown. :D