So it’s been a few days since I’ve blogged. I was a little bit unsure of exactly what information to leak out regarding the recent events here in Bangalore and across India. I did not know how many of you actually read as far as the world news in the paper and there’s really no reason for alarm.
Bangalore has historically been a very peaceful city. The last time a random act of violence occurred here it was in 2005 and it was on a small scale. There has always been tension between the vast majority of Hindu population and the tiny minority of Muslims. Every so often, the natives here say, these tensions flare up and small battles occur.
On Friday afternoon, we had the entire family in downtown Bangalore, at the FRO (Foreign Registration Office) so we could be processed through immigration as foreign residents on a work visa here in India. The FRO is located inside the Bangalore police commissioners barracks. It is in an extremely congested area of downtown. It took us about an hour to travel a 3 kilometer stretch (sorry, about a mile and a half)! Once we reached the FRO, we were greeted by an “assistant” who handled all of our paperwork and passports and basically ushered us through the process. I watched as a half a dozen officers stood around a patrol car (it was a perfectly maintained classic car of some kind)… they were just sipping coffee and every few minutes they would pull out their handkerchiefs and polish the car a little bit… this went on for the entire time we waited. I was thinking, wow, it’s a good there is no serious crime here in Bangalore!
Bangalore has historically been a very peaceful city. The last time a random act of violence occurred here it was in 2005 and it was on a small scale. There has always been tension between the vast majority of Hindu population and the tiny minority of Muslims. Every so often, the natives here say, these tensions flare up and small battles occur.
On Friday afternoon, we had the entire family in downtown Bangalore, at the FRO (Foreign Registration Office) so we could be processed through immigration as foreign residents on a work visa here in India. The FRO is located inside the Bangalore police commissioners barracks. It is in an extremely congested area of downtown. It took us about an hour to travel a 3 kilometer stretch (sorry, about a mile and a half)! Once we reached the FRO, we were greeted by an “assistant” who handled all of our paperwork and passports and basically ushered us through the process. I watched as a half a dozen officers stood around a patrol car (it was a perfectly maintained classic car of some kind)… they were just sipping coffee and every few minutes they would pull out their handkerchiefs and polish the car a little bit… this went on for the entire time we waited. I was thinking, wow, it’s a good there is no serious crime here in Bangalore!
Once we finished the registration, we phoned our driver to come and pick us up. Generally, our driver parks super close to where he drops us off and is there in moments when we call him. However, there is no parking allowed on Infantry Road, in front of the barracks, so he had to loop around in the terrible traffic. We stood there, on the sidewalk, for about 10 minutes as traffic whizzed by.
This was the first time since we’ve arrived, that we have been “standing around” on the streets. I felt completely safe there with the kids… even among the chaos. We headed back to Whitefield at 1:15pm and when we arrived at the hotel we heard the news that 7 bombs had been detonated downtown between 1:30 and 2:00. One woman was killed, standing at a bus stop with her husband and many others seriously injured. One explosion was just a few blocks from where we had stood just 15 minutes prior. It really all clicked in right at that moment how far from home we really are. On Saturday an 8th bomb was found, just outside of the Forum Mall, where the McDonalds video here on my blog was taken, and was successfully de-activated by the bomb squad.The violence has spread further north and on Saturday night in Ahmadabad, there were 16 more explosions, killing 45 and injuring hundreds. A Muslim group has claimed responsibility for the attacks.
The buzz among to the ex-pat community here is loud... the security here in Palm Meadows has been stepped up and everyone is more alert. It is a similar feeling as we had in the U.S. after 9/11. But for the most part, life went right back to normal within hours. The locals have shrugged it all off as "just trying to shake things up" and refuse to have their feathers ruffled! In fact, on Friday night as Pat and I were glued to the local news, we got a phone call from Vikas, one of Pat's co-workers, inviting us to come by Saturday night for dinner with his family. Just a normal weekend!
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