another snow day for riots

This afternoon Geeti got several SMSs from Fazal (also known as Chubby) saying the city was turning violent and we should go home asap. Several more warnings followed, from other people: do not leave the house, not even to go to the gym, which is two blocks away. So I had to cancel my list of errands, which again involved going to Aminabad, but apparently that's where the two deaths occurred, though maybe that was in Kaiserbagh right next to Aminabad. We had stranded guests. Rohish's mom, grandma and grandma's cousin are visiting; their meal in Hazrat Ganj got interrupted by bloody people running by and getting the restaurant closed while they were still eating! Then after making dinner and eating with us, they couldn't get anyone to take them to their guesthouse. Finally at 10 pm they got a driver, and he's charging rps 250 for a 40 rupee trip. We also had another visitor Matt who's been in Korea for two years. He did the Urdu program in 2002 and is staying at the same guest house as the Lal matriarchy, so it worked out that they could get home together.

That's all I had to write, just a little nerve-wracking news. For the record, I'm in favor of the nuclear deal; it's been a long time coming. In general, Indians are too. Right now, the protests are an interesting alignment of the secular left and Muslim hard-liners. People upset about Bush vs. Islam (and following so recently on the Europe vs. Islam cartoon masla), and people upset about the standard West capitalism nuclear etc. issues. And interestingly, it can turn into a Hindu-Muslim thing pretty quicky from there... might seem complicated, but if you're looking for an excuse... e.g. if Hindu shop owners don't close their shops quickly enough (where closing means supporting the protests)... anyway, instead of writing more I just stole all of Sadaf and Geeti's photos from the past several months and I'm going to post a few.

Below: The old British Residency, Mohurram at the Bara Imambara, Hyderabad, our instructors Wafadar and Aftab at the airport, and Aligarh