Yesterday morning walking to work there were policemen walking in big groups, sitting on all the benchs, and basically lining the promenade on the way to work. Normally there will be a couple police out but usually hanging out in their little guard huts. There were lots of people out so I didn't think to much about it, except that maybe Thackeray's health had declined some more.
At work, spent the morning taking our cook to the hospital with Vikas. She slipped and fell on Sunday last week and "broke" her wrist. She came to school Thursday afternoon with her arm in a makeshift cast she had gotten put on by the "doctor", who didn't happen to send her for x-rays. The "cast" was super tight and felt as though if there was any plaster in it somewhere, it was broken up. So, yesterday on the way to the hospital we stopped at the "doctor"she saw, to have him remove the cast (as there is nothing at the school I could cut it off with) so we could take her to see the orthopedic specialist and get xrays. It turns out the "doctor" was a village doctor, who looked like he was maybe 25yrs old and his office was a little hole in the wall place, with a sign above it for casting. It turns out the cast consisted of gauze and popsicle sticks (to keep it stable I suppose). He had also put something that looked like betadine on her arm (not sure what that was for) and told her to come back in 2 days and it would be better! Amazing! Anyhow, we told him NOT to put the cast back on and headed for the hospital. Indian hospitals are always quite interesting. The Ortho guy that was supposed to be there, wasn't (apparently we had an old schedule, but when she gave us the new one, it looked exactly the same...). So after a few trips up and down stairs, we sat for a good hour while she stood in line for an xray. Because it was Saturday, the other Ortho wouldn't be in until 2pm, but the xray wouldn't be ready until 7pm.... so kind of a waste of time. So, we went back to the school, I wrapped her hand and then we took Parvitii to the Dr. as she has a bad chest infection and he gave us some antibiotics and nice brightly coloured pills that are for "runny nose, fever, analgesia" basically an antihistamine, and a couple NSAIDS.
When we got home I had run to get a yoga schedule and was just walking back up the alley to our place when Tania called me to say "you need to get back to the apartment NOW and tell everyone not to leave". Bal Thakeray had passed away yesterday afternoon. Within an hour of Tania calling, all the shops were closing, rickshaws and taxi's stopped running and basically all of Mumbai shut down. Tania did manage to order pizza for us and some grocery's before everything shut down. The police have put out a warning/advisory that people are to stay in their homes unless there is an emergency.... so we are now on "house arrest" for the next couple days. So what do you do when you can't do anything? Well, you stay up until 4:30am visiting and playing The Game of Things and Taboo!
There is huge concern about riots starting, but so far things have remained very calm. The funeral procession left Mr. Thakeray's house in E. Bandra early this morning to travel to Dadar (downtown area) to a big park there where he will be cremated. It took 7 hours for the them to get there (thousands of people have gathered to mourn him). There is something like 60 000 police in Mumbai, and 57 000 of them are on duty to maintain peace for the funeral.
Anyhow, we are tucked up in our apartment, trying to keep ourselves entertained with internet, reading, sleeping, pushups, squats, eating, and anything else we can think of for the next 48 hours.
At work, spent the morning taking our cook to the hospital with Vikas. She slipped and fell on Sunday last week and "broke" her wrist. She came to school Thursday afternoon with her arm in a makeshift cast she had gotten put on by the "doctor", who didn't happen to send her for x-rays. The "cast" was super tight and felt as though if there was any plaster in it somewhere, it was broken up. So, yesterday on the way to the hospital we stopped at the "doctor"she saw, to have him remove the cast (as there is nothing at the school I could cut it off with) so we could take her to see the orthopedic specialist and get xrays. It turns out the "doctor" was a village doctor, who looked like he was maybe 25yrs old and his office was a little hole in the wall place, with a sign above it for casting. It turns out the cast consisted of gauze and popsicle sticks (to keep it stable I suppose). He had also put something that looked like betadine on her arm (not sure what that was for) and told her to come back in 2 days and it would be better! Amazing! Anyhow, we told him NOT to put the cast back on and headed for the hospital. Indian hospitals are always quite interesting. The Ortho guy that was supposed to be there, wasn't (apparently we had an old schedule, but when she gave us the new one, it looked exactly the same...). So after a few trips up and down stairs, we sat for a good hour while she stood in line for an xray. Because it was Saturday, the other Ortho wouldn't be in until 2pm, but the xray wouldn't be ready until 7pm.... so kind of a waste of time. So, we went back to the school, I wrapped her hand and then we took Parvitii to the Dr. as she has a bad chest infection and he gave us some antibiotics and nice brightly coloured pills that are for "runny nose, fever, analgesia" basically an antihistamine, and a couple NSAIDS.
When we got home I had run to get a yoga schedule and was just walking back up the alley to our place when Tania called me to say "you need to get back to the apartment NOW and tell everyone not to leave". Bal Thakeray had passed away yesterday afternoon. Within an hour of Tania calling, all the shops were closing, rickshaws and taxi's stopped running and basically all of Mumbai shut down. Tania did manage to order pizza for us and some grocery's before everything shut down. The police have put out a warning/advisory that people are to stay in their homes unless there is an emergency.... so we are now on "house arrest" for the next couple days. So what do you do when you can't do anything? Well, you stay up until 4:30am visiting and playing The Game of Things and Taboo!
There is huge concern about riots starting, but so far things have remained very calm. The funeral procession left Mr. Thakeray's house in E. Bandra early this morning to travel to Dadar (downtown area) to a big park there where he will be cremated. It took 7 hours for the them to get there (thousands of people have gathered to mourn him). There is something like 60 000 police in Mumbai, and 57 000 of them are on duty to maintain peace for the funeral.
Anyhow, we are tucked up in our apartment, trying to keep ourselves entertained with internet, reading, sleeping, pushups, squats, eating, and anything else we can think of for the next 48 hours.
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