Karnataka is protesting against the Supreme Court's decision to release water from River Cauvery to neighbouring Tamil Nadu, with a dawn to dusk state-wide bandh. The bandh, called by farmers' unions and pro-Kannada outfits, has affected large parts of the state: on Friday, Bengaluru and Mysore came to a standstill with public transport services paralysed.

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has said that the state will not oppose the strike.

"We have no issues with peaceful protests," he said, "but any act of violence will be punished."

Since morning, all modes of public transport – city and state buses, auto rickshaws, tourist and airport cabs – have been off the roads. Namma Metro, too, has called off its services.

However, SouthWestern Railways will continue to ply, unless a forced disruption of services occurs.

According to reports, hundreds are stranded at Bengaluru's Kempegowda International Airport, as no taxis are available. Airport authorities have arranged extra seating to accommodate the sudden glut of passengers. A few protestors gathered at the airport in the morning, but no untoward incident has been reported yet.

The Bengaluru City Police's Twitter handle has been tweeting information about the city's security arrangements. The bandobast pictures look peaceful, at variance with the tweets and videos being posted by citizens.

The bandh has also given rise, once again, to growing tension between the Kannadiga and non-Kannadiga population of the city, especially after Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, Managing Director of biopharmaceutical company Biocon, tweeted a call to rename Bengaluru as "Bandhaluru" on Thursday.

Shaw also tweeted that frequent bandhs were affecting productivity, an opinion that faced criticism online for it's tone-deaf take on the crisis affecting the local population of the city. She has since deleted the tweets.

Some people on Twitter tried to find the silver lining in the tensions sweeping the city. The lack of traffic has been a welcome relief for some.

As always, Twitter was quick to seek comic relief in the situation.