Rajkumar

So, I'm not in the office today, let me explain why.

Yesterday, one of the most famous south Indian actors, a gentleman called Rajkumar passed away. Once news got out, thousands of people took to the streets to express their sorrow. His house was mobbed by people trying to see his body, and when it was moved to a larger location, the ambulance was surrounded by people who eventually ripped the doors off it to get a glimpse of the corpse.

In other part sof the city, crowds were enforcing mourning by blocking roads and occasionally getting violent and setting fire to tires and throwing rocks at cars. This went on for almost all of the afternoon and evening yesterday. It was recommended that I stay in the office a little longer until things had died down so that I could get back to the hotel safely. The cars that the company provided to bring the staff home all had pictures of the recently deceased on the windows to show respect and hopefully mean that they would not be attacked. At about seven in the evening, it seemed that the center of town was clear again so I left with my driver, who had also put a picture on the windshield. The drive was surprisingly fast as there were relatively few cars on the roads. All of the shops were closed and we did pass one group of cars with flags flying from the roof who were shouting abuse at cars passing in the opposite direction who did seem to be showing the proper respect. There were a lot more police than usual on the roads closer t the city centre and the gates of the hotel had been closed.

It seems that things were worse in some of the poorer parts of the city. Here are a couple of press reports. First from the somewhat sensationalist Deccan Herald and then from the Indian Times.

The funeral is today and I received a call from the senior guy at the office recommending that I stay in the hotel as there will be chaos on the roads and there is always a risk of the crowds of mourners getting carried away. In the unlikely event that I got caught in something, only speaking English could make it more difficult to diffuse the situation. So I'm here at the hotel and I can't do any work as I don't have a work laptop. Sitting outside earlier I did hear some sirens in the distance and the occasional sounds of large crowds but things seem to be strangely quiet. I'd go and have a look closer to the funeral but I guess that would be a little risky.

I've just spoken to the guys at the office, apparently a bit of a mob turned up to try and enforce the day of grieving that has been declared. They stopped some of the people going into the office and some stones have been thrown and a couple of windows broken. Apparently everybody is ok though, although the people on the New York shift have not been able to make it in so that process won't be run here today.