It feels a little weird to be writing about this since never in my life have I experienced something hitting this close to home.
Just last night around 7:30pm a bomb went off at the German Bakery (pictured here pre-attack) in Koregaon Park here in Pune. It's strange on so many levels, but mostly because everyone knows this bakery. It's not just a bakery, they serve coffee, chai, and organic health food. It's famous in Pune, it's right next to the Osho Ashram and is always filled with foreigners in their maroon robes. This was the first place I met Julia (the AIC on-site Director), faculty from campus and students go here to hangout, it's a hot spot that's been in Pune for years. We heard the news last night, Tom (colleague of Remi's here on campus) called us to make sure we were OK, he was in town and saw all the streets closed off and fire trucks. Luckily, no one from school or AIC were involved.
The weirdest thing though was the fact Remi and I were there today, only a mere two hours prior to the blast. We were in town running errands, had some lunch at Hard Rock Cafe, then before we headed home we'd ask our driver where we could go to get an extra key made for our apartment. He took us to a vendor on the street, right on the corner of the German Bakery, near the Osho Ashram. Lots of vendors sell stuff here since there is a lot of tourists. We sat in the car waiting for the key to be made, I made a comment while staring at the Bakery, "That place is always packed with Osho people." We watched as so many of them walked by us in their prayer robes.
Once Tom called us I turned on the news channel, both Remi and I were silent for about 5 minutes while our eyes were glued to the news coverage. The reporters saying it was targeted because of it's "popularity with foreigners". The bakery sign, which we'd seen only few hours ago was completely destroyed, the building was unrecognisable, and we were at a loss for words...we just kept saying "We were just there...we were just there..."
I'm not sure if internally I am being too calm about this or blowing it out of proportion. If this was a place I'd never been to or heard of I suppose my reaction would be somewhat different. But this just hits too close to home, and the fact that we're living on an "International Campus" filled with foreigners makes us feel even more like we have a target on our back. I know you have to keep living your life, you can't be afraid of everything, but at the same time I don't want to be naive either.
This whole thing is just fucked up I tell you (sorry for the language).
