BORI update

[Guest guest]

Dear Colleagues,

 

First of all, my sincere thanks to those who responded with support to the

initial

post. unless there are objections, whenever there is something that I

feel is worth your attention, I will post my account for the week or so

that I am here in Pune.

 

A number of scholars have expressed a desire to set up a type of

relief-fund in the U.S. for BORI. Indeed, I had a chance to speak with

Prof. Bhate briefly about this issue today, and I also relayed to her

the shock and sympathies that have been expressed on-line worldwide.

Expressing her gratitude to the academic community on behalf of BORI,

she informed me that a move is in fact under way to set up an account

with HDFC Bank here in India which may also accept international

currencies. If anyone has concrete ideas as to the logistics of setting

up a single fund in the U.S. that may then be transferred to BORI, it

may be a valuable enterprise. Otherwise, we might simply be able to do

what has been happening here, which is to individually send checks made

out to Secretary, BORI, to their address: B.O.R.I., Pune 411 004.

 

The media coverage here, as you must be gathering, has been very

intense, and Professors Bhate and Bahulkar have been constantly asked

for interviews. Again, I should emphasize that the Marathi-language

newspapers and television stations have practically unanimously made

this their lead story in Pune for two days, and this matter is something

that ordinary citizens here are taking very seriously. I am sure that

most of you will be able to follow official developments via legitimate

news sources so I will skip the details of the damage estimates, the

police case, the dignitary visits and focus again on the cleanup.

 

Efforts were in full force today, and all of the massive bookcases,

cabinets, and furniture that was not destroyed were set upright. Most of

the student volunteers - and there were indeed many eager and active

teams of college kids from all over Pune showing up for duty throughout

the day - were working in the library, uprighting the metal and wooden

bookshelves, stacking up books, and cleaning out glass, bricks, and so

forth. A number of the staff focused their attention in the manuscript

rooms, uprighting the massive cabinets that had been knocked over like

dominoes.

 

The manuscripts, I am happy to say, were treated with care during the

cleanup, and, as I had initially reported yesterday, it may be of

comfort to note that at least the ones that passed through my hands and

before my eyes during the cleanup were still wrapped in cloth and in one

piece, with no obvious signs of damage. Being tossed around and crushed

under cabinets was surely not beneficial to their health, but as far as

I can tell, the vast majority of manuscripts have not been torn or thrashed to

any severe extent. I suspect that aside from the fact that they were

locked, the weight of the cabinets in fact might have been what spared

many manuscripts from vandalism - the cabinets, once they had been

toppled over onto each other, simply didn't allow the vandals to get at

their contents.

 

And so, to our surprise, the major, labor-intensive tasks of cleanup -

stacking books and manuscripts, uprighting bookshelves, cleaning out

glass and debris - were finished by about four in the afternoon, and we

simply couldn't think of what else to do. some students even took to

cleaning up trash in the courtyard and raking up leaves. Tomorrow the

staff will commence the more meticulous, long-term work of recataloging

the manuscripts, reorganizing the library, fixing broken shelves and

furniture, and figuring out what to do with the main (Tata) hall.

 

After an afternoon of being probably more in the way than actually

helping the staff members working in the manuscript room, I spent a good

bit of time talking with them in the 'other' tea room at BORI. The

staffers here are indeed earnest, loyal, and have done a great deal of

the more difficult cleanup work without any extra pay, without rest, and

without bickering. Many of them live on the premises, and have worked

here for more than a generation, so indeed for them this was an attack

on their home, as well as for a few of them, on their bodies. (Thopate's

belly is still sore!) Please be sure to thank them the next time you are

here.

 

 

Adheesh Sathaye

Ph. D. Candidate

Dept. of South and Southeast Asian Studies

University of California, Berkeley