City of Bandh

Oh it didn't take long for the City of Joy to give me my first 'bandh' experience. Apparently the bandh was to protest the hike in fuel prices which would have had an adverse effect on the livelihood of the poor, or so the organizers of the 'bandh' claimed.

I got my first warning from the caretaker at my place, who advised me to make suitable arrangements for the following day, as in his words, "Gadi par log announce kar rahe the, kal band rahega, aap thoda dekh lijiyega".

Honestly I didn't think too much about it, because I have not actually seen 'bandhs' in my life. Either there have been outright curfews at the time of communal riots or news report that some 'bandh' happened in some part of Delhi, and my reaction to that normally was, "There was some bandh, really"?? Or there was the whole CNG fiasco in Delhi, but even that didn't affect my life too much, it just meant making alternative arrangements to reach school.

But, I guess this was an important part of education as an Indian citizen that I had missed out, so Kolkata was all set to teach me a thing or two about bandhs. First thing that I noticed on the day of the bandh was the absence of traffic on the road. It almost seemed that the "Yellow Sea" (kolkata cabs) had gone into a low tide. I guess that is the first casualty of any bandh, transport.

After waiting for quite some time, and walking quite a distance I finally managed to hail a cab, I was quite surprised that the guy did stop, because I could see that there was another person sitting with the driver, who I later found out was riding shotgun because of the dangers involved in venturing out on a 'bandh' day. After I struck up a conversation with the cabbie, he told me how he had seen another cabbie being slapped for daring to take his car out on a bandh day and that was why he had persuaded a friend of his to ride alongside him. He also had a thing or two to say about the organizers of the bandh and how much they cared for people like him, but I guess all that can't be mentioned here. And yes, I was charged a 'risk premium', 5 Rs. over and above the meter fare.

Infact the few taxies that were plying were quite an interesting sight. One of them had pasted a printout declaring "Hospital" on it's windscreen. And another one had it's driver waving a red cloth out of the window, I am not sure if that was to signify an emergency or to show his solidarity with the Comrades.

Anyways, as the evening progressed the "risk premium" increased, as on my way back I was charged 10 Rs. over the meter fare. This time I was told windscreens had been smashed in Northern part of the city. I also learnt that insurance companies don't cover damages that occur on days of 'bandh'.

Well that was it, I didn't get to see a lot of 'action' on the bandh day, but I guess that is either because the Commies are down and out, or I live in a part of the town that is relatively peaceful or who knows, maybe both.

So that was my first real bandh experience. If any of you have had an interesting "bandh' experience, do share.