BORI update

[Adheesh Sathaye]

 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