Mumbai is closed
Sunday, July 9th, 2006
(images taken from local news sources)
I was sitting in the bookstore on the third floor of Infiniti Mall waiting for my friends to arrive so we could go bowling.
Suddenly, the lights started flashing and a voice on the loudspeaker ordered everyone out.
Confused because it was only 3, I hurriedly bought the graphic novel I’d been skimming, and sat down in front of the restaurant I was supposed to be meeting everyone at. Security rushed over to tell me the entire building had to be evacuated.
When I asked why, they answered “……is….problem. Outside.”
I went outside, and saw people pouring out of every building on the street, as steel shutters slammed shut. None of the rushing people could tell me what was happening, so I sat on the bench outside to read my book and make sure that none of my friends showed up (it was still ony 20 minutes after we’d agreed to meet, so I knew that no one would even have left their houses yet… Indian Standard Time, you see.)
A few minutes later, security rushed out to nervously inform me that I couldn’t even sit in front of the building.
“Is…. problem.” I asked if any other places were open. “All Mumbai is closed.”
I took a rickshaw back home, with no word from my friends, and asked the front desk.
“Do you know what is happening?”
“Yes, sir. Mumbai is closed.”
“Do you know why?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Why?”
“Is…. problem.”
“What problem?”
They looked nervously at one another. I couldn’t figure out if they were afraid to say, or unable to find the words.
In the atrium, the tv was showing images of burning buses, riots, roads being closed off by mobs, people pelting rocks at trains. Civil unrest. The broadcast was in hindi, so I still didn’t know what was causing all this madness.
I rushed upstairs to my old friend, Google News.
It turns out, someone threw mud at a statue.
