Hartal time!

It was very, very quiet this morning: no one on the streets, almost no traffic on the roads, no boats in the harbor. On Twitter I saw that a state official was planning to pay a visit to the Broadway shopping area (a warren of small streets filled with shops) near us to urge merchants to open despite the hartal. I wanted to go out and see what was what, so around 10:30 am Michael, Agatha, and I ventured out. There were motorcycles and a few auto-rickshaws on the roads, but no buses. Most shops were closed. Park Avenue, which runs in front of the college and which we must cross every day to go anyplace, is usually filled with a heart-stopping stream of traffic. Today:

There was a noticeable police presence in Broadway shops. Maybe 20% of the shops seemed to be open, but there weren't really any customers. The atmosphere felt tense.

Walking back down Park Avenue, we saw the police had blocked the road in front of the park, where we had just walked a few minutes earlier.

A protest was coming up the road. Agatha got a little scared and didn't want to stay, but I did. Michael reluctantly left me standing behind an empty snack stand and took Agatha back up to the apartment. I stationed myself at the corner to watch them go by, assuming they'd head up Park Avenue. But then I saw them turning right towards me, up our street. In retrospect, it makes sense that the police wanted to guide them away from Broadway so as not to incite retribution for the merchants who decided to defy the hartal and open their shops. I dashed back to the entrance of our building and stood there to watch them go by. Here's the video! (If it doesn't work for you here, check my Instagram.)

 

The flags with the giant hand on them are INC (Congress Party) flags; that is the party that ruled India for decades until Modi and the BJP (Hindu nationalists) defeated them five years ago. The BJP called this hartal, but the INC is supporting it in the name of "not disrespecting tradition." I see also a Communist flag and an Islamic flag in there as well. I have no idea what they are chanting. It could be"respect tradition, keep ladies out of the temple" or it could be "this hartal is dumb and divisive, let's everyone get back to work." So, we're not sure what we saw today, but we saw something!