Breaking Glass Dogs German Prof at Hotel

A 39-year-old German professor who was visiting the city for a programme had a horrible experience with breaking glass - twice - within 72 hours.

Professor Vidya (name changed), a naturalized German citizen who is employed with a private Berlin university was staying at the Purple Lotus Hotel off Lavelle Road in central Bengaluru when she allegedly became the unwitting victim of breaking glass at the hotel on separate days.

The first incident happened after she had just finished taking a shower on Sunday morning. She told DH that she preparing to step out of the shower cubicle when the glass door came off its hinges and fell on her.

Suffering deep gouge wounds to her hands by breaking glass, which was verified by hospital staff, Dr Vidya was rushed to the nearby Vittal Mallya Hospital nearby. There, she received several stitches to her hands before they were bandaged.

When she returned to the hospital in the evening, the apologetic staff offered to move her to a second room in the hotel. She accepted. Two days later, on Tuesday, however, while the doctor was entertaining several family members and friends in her room, a glass side table shattered and fell.

“All we did was place food on it and it broke,” Dr Vidya said, adding that she took this second mishap as a portent that the hotel was inherently dangerous.

However, the hotel owner, Jayasimha Krishnappa, director of KOMUL, denied this assertion. “The table they were using was meant to serve as a laptop table. Instead, four people were using it as a food table. No wonder it broke,” he said.

On the matter of the shower door, Krishnappa added that no such incident had ever taken place in the twelve years that he has been operating the hotel. “This is an unheard-of incident,” he said.

Dr Vidya, however, insisted the quality at the hotel is sub-standard. “That hotel is full of glass fittings. It has glass walls, glass balcony paneling and all sorts of glass fittings and furniture. I think that people should be aware of the problems this hotel has,” she said.

Police have booked a case against the hotel, under Section 337 of the Indian Penal Code, for endangering the personal safety of others. In response, the hotel filed a non-cognizable report against Dr Vidya.