Thursday night (11/30) I was in a conference call ... and at about 8:00pm local time I was getting flooded with emails ... all of them with subject lines like: "Are you okay?" "Where are you?" "What is going on?" "Please say you're safe" ... and so on. ... Had to stop the meeting so I could answer all these emails.
All of these emails were coming from my team mates back home because they heard of 'riots' and 'unrest' in Pune.
Let me start by saying that I AM FINE ... and that there were NO riots anywhere near me.
There was a bunch of civil unrest and protests among the Dalits throughout Maharashtra state (the state where Pune is in).
It all started with a desecration of a statue of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar, who is revered by the Dalit population (we, back home, would be more familiar with the term "untouchables"). This happened on Wednesday; and it touched off a storm of protests which unfortunately turned a bit ugly in places. Most of the violence taking place closer to Mumbai and not really reaching Pune.
During the day on Thursday, all of the security gates to the hotel here and the office buildings next to me were closed. Security guards were only letting people in they either knew should be there or who could convince them they should be near or in the buildings. And the metroplex theater right here closed for the day. It was all just a precaution.
The biggest concern for everyone here was for the members of the Pune team ... making sure that everyone had a way to get safely home last night. ... Everyone did ... and they've come back to work today. ... Apparently everyone's travels home were uneventful.
The news today (Friday) is that although there may be very small pockets of protesters still around, they are far and few between. The authorities seem to have a good handle on controlling the situation.
And ... this is no longer "big news" here even more ... the top news stories today had to do with cricket and a Bollywood star that has been on trial.
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