"For a fortnight now, I've been travelling within the city with my PAN card, ration card, driving licence in my pockets, in case I'm asked for identity proof. My family left two weeks ago. After this recent violence, I decided to join them for a few weeks till the hostility simmers down," said Das.

Das's girlfriend is a Maharashtrian studying in Pune. "Puja and her parents have been asking me not to leave. I will return, of course, once the violence stops," he said.

Waiting in tow with a family of five also travelling to Orissa, Das said although he had not been personally targetted, he is taking no chances. "Jiske muh par Hindi aah raha hai, usko pakad ke maar rahe hain," he said. While Das can speak Marathi, his family cannot. Nor can the family he is waiting to board the Konark with speak the language. "

Some people have been coming regularly at nights for the past few days asking all non-Maharashtrians to leave and beating up those who resist," said Vijay Sethi, 21, who works at a construction site as an operator. Sethi has been working in the city for 3 years and is more fluent in hindi than in Marathi. With him is his sister-in-law Archana Sethi who is travelling with her young children, two sons who are six months and a year and half old and one five year old daughter. "We do not know why exactly they are beating up people, but they are and we are leaving," said Archana.