Well, a "bandh" is...

a) a lot of gangs of people roaming the streets causing lots of property damage and injuries?
b) a quiet day at home because everyone assumed it would be "a)"?

Seems that in Bangalore the answer is b).

Apparently these things often have some of a), so in order to be safe most people stay home. Of course, one has to wonder whether it is really a case of nerves or just that everyone wanted a longer weekend. Jim's company decided that only essential people should be at the offices and they made provisions for people to come the night before and stay overnight.
We got up on Monday morning wondering what we would hear and it turned out to be pretty much nothing! It was wonderful! We have NEVER heard it so quiet here in the 20 months we have been here now. No, noisy auto rickshaws, no horns blaring away, no construction noise- just general quiet! In addition, it was a nice day with high temps of about 79F and a little breeze- just great!
Jim worked, but it was a quiet day since it was a holiday in the US, not much had accumulated over the weekend and during the day.
In the evening, our friend Linn stopped by with her car and driver (the bandh ended at 6PM) and took us to a bookstore where we picked up a few things and then returned home. We got some pizza at a nearby hotel for dinner.
So, it seems that a bandh can be a very pleasant experience...
However, we read that there was some violence in some other parts of the country. It seems to have occurred in areas dominated by the ruling political party. Bangalore and the state of Karnataka are run by the major opposition party and it seems there was little or no violence here. The bandh was organized by this major opposition party. We suspect that the local people were under orders to be orderly in any protests so the party would not look bad, but it may be that in other areas people just felt more strongly about the whole thing.