Quiet day (for us)

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Wednesday

You may (or may not) have heard that a general strike was called today in Kolkata. I had some trouble finding it on CNN as the American elections have pretty much taken front page. This is a tool used periodically, for a 24 hour period, to make a statement and has been used several times since late last fall. For description of reasons for this occasion, see for the CNN report or for the Reuters piece . The rickshaws, most of the taxis and busses, stores, etc., close down. This time, the IT sector was supposed to join in. Just as with our strikes, if someone was at work (especially in the IT sector), they were requested to stay over and continue working, since the next day's staff wouldn't be coming in. Sure did make the streets quieter but the train behind our building kept on going!

Public school was out because the busses aren't running. JU is still in session but numbers of the students weren't able to make it in. It was suggested we not go outside the campus very much, if at all. Walking around campus was much easier today--not near the usual number of cars, bikes, scooters, motorcycles, rickshaws zipping around to watch out for. Sukin's conference (on Crystallography) began okay--he had chartered a bus to transport folks to/from the hotel.

I went to the Deputy Registrar's office with him for a while, as he made it in to work, and we talked a bit about administrative work situations and he shared pictures of some of his art work with me. He's very talented and has a variety of styles.

We had lunch with the group from the seminar--more good food, and lots of it!

I wandered around campus a bit again (pictures are of cricket players), and visited the Bookstore again. Also, called Mumbai and confirmed our arrival there for Sunday afternoon and talked to Mike--he'll be heading out this evening--leaves Dulles on the 6:45 flight. Sat out on the veranda and watched the cannas near the rr tracks grow. Nice, leisurely day!

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Photos

Cricket players
On the field at JU