Bangalore's Day Off

I woke up to a strange day today. Dadi's (A's grandmother) nurse and our driver were missing, there were no fresh eggs in the kitchen (because the market was closed) and the strangest thing of all was the lack of noise - traffic noise.

I found out soon enough there was a strike today - a fuel price hike strike organized by the BJP (opposition political party, which happens to be quite influential in the city). And apparently, when there is a strike, the whole city, yes, I meant the whole entire city, shuts down.


MG Road at 12:30pm on Monday July 5th, 2010 - NO TRAFFIC!


St. Mark's Road usually bumper-to-bumper in daylight but today, you could actually see the trees!

I thought it was quite amazing that one political party can have so much influence in the whole city. I mean the city must've lost a few billion dollars! "A" said it's really not so much that the people were supporting the strike but more like they are trying to protect themselves and their property from being destroyed by some hoodlums, hence closing down their business for the day saves them more money.

The Collection, UB City - a luxury mall nicely protected by nettings to prevent damage from stone-throwing.

The Collection, UB City.

Another building covered in net.

We had to drive into town to see my orthodontist because I swallowed one of my brace studs. Mama B told us to avoid small roads because apparently people get violent sometimes during strikes like burning tyres and damaging running vehicles.

Violence, I didn't see. What I did see everywhere were people making full use of their day off (and the lack of traffic) playing cricket in the middle of the streets.