Whoa! The Ranga Blog has gone darker than TheRanga after a week in the Dominican! Apologies, folks! Been very busy with travel the last few weeks and wasn't able to sit down and put the pen to paper like I wanted to. Even now, I'm squeezing in this blog post from Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam, en route to JFK after another week-long trip to Bombay. But, darkness be gone. Let's go!
Bombay was good, but definitely dry for this time of the year. Apparently the monsoon should be in full effect, and I only saw a shade of a drizzle in my 5 days there. Not good for the crops, not good for farmers' incomes, not good for social stability, not good for politicians, not good for the economy. And it looks like Bombay isn't even getting the brunt of it. Some areas in north and east India (the same areas that triggered the two massive power outages a couple weeks ago, most likely because they were drawing on tons of power to irrigate their parched fields) are running monsoon rains 70% below historical averages. While India can definitely weather another couple of bad monsoons due to good harvests in prior years, the recent trend of disappointing monsoons has to be disconcerting. Is it climate change? Is it all the biomass (read: incinerated cow dung) floating around that is keeping the air from becoming saturated with moisture and dropping to the ground? Who knows. But it starkly highlights how verily one of the world's largest economies sits at the behest of mother nature. On a similar note, the recent drought in the US is creating a similar firestorm here--brace yourselves for higher corn prices, which means higher meat and poultry prices (because American animals aren't fed grass like they should be, but rather loads and loads of corn meal) and probably higher gas prices as the ethanol component of gasoline will become more expensive. And here we thought we were getting a reprieve at the gas pump.
Last time I flew to India, I regaled you with the story of the old gentleman who crabbily yelled at me in some mutilated form of Hindi and English the entire flight (remember, the guy who asked when I boarded, and I thought he was asking when I was born? Yes! That one!). This time, no such humor was involved on TheRanga's flight.
I found my seat, and lo and behold, I was again to be near an elderly gentleman who was so lost that he was actually sitting in my seat. Noticing that the man had a broken arm, I offered him my aisle seat in case he wanted more space, but he declined and moved to his window seat. After we got settled into our seats, we made the usual bit of small talk while taxiing. He asked me where I was headed, what I do, etc. Not wanting to have a one-way conversation, I reciprocated and asked him where he was off to. "St. Louis," he told me. "What will you be doing there? Vacation?" I asked. He paused a second, and then said this:
"About one fortnight ago, my daughter passed away in a bus accident in St. Louis. The bus hit a bridge pillar and we lost her immediately."
Um, holy shit. "Oh my god, I said. How did that happen?" I didn't really know what else to say.
"I believe the bus punctured a tire and veered off the road. We three were in the corner so were most severely injured. My daughter went immediately--she was the only victim on the bus. My wife's left leg was shattered, so she is still in the hospital there. As I've only sustained a broken arm, I took the body back to Mumbai this week for cremation and now will go back to be with my wife until she heals."
He then went on to tell me that his daughter had just finished her first year of a grad program in public health and had studied to be a dentist in India before that. She was 25 years old, he told me. Then he told me the reason he was asking me questions is because he thought maybe I would know US law and offer some advice on if/when/how he can get lawyers involved to seek some damages for the accident. Apparently the bus company has not uttered a word to him or his family throughout these last two weeks. Poor guy, throughout all of this, he also has to worry about finding a lawyer in a completely foreign country to deal with the bus company that just killed his daughter.
Anyway, I did some digging when I got to Amsterdam and sure enough, here it is. It seems that this particular family was seated a level above the driver in the front row of the bus, so the three of them got the brunt of the impact during the accident. What is more heartbreaking is that there are people filing lawsuits already against MegaBus, claiming personal injury and emotional distress from seeing a girl killed, etc. And yet the father of the girl who was killed doesn't even know how to contact a lawyer in the US. Unbelievably sad. And I'm trying to think of a way I can help, but I can't. Anyone, ideas? Perhaps you law-folk?
Sorry to re-open the blog on such a dour note. Upcoming posts will be much rosier, I promise!
Bombay was good, but definitely dry for this time of the year. Apparently the monsoon should be in full effect, and I only saw a shade of a drizzle in my 5 days there. Not good for the crops, not good for farmers' incomes, not good for social stability, not good for politicians, not good for the economy. And it looks like Bombay isn't even getting the brunt of it. Some areas in north and east India (the same areas that triggered the two massive power outages a couple weeks ago, most likely because they were drawing on tons of power to irrigate their parched fields) are running monsoon rains 70% below historical averages. While India can definitely weather another couple of bad monsoons due to good harvests in prior years, the recent trend of disappointing monsoons has to be disconcerting. Is it climate change? Is it all the biomass (read: incinerated cow dung) floating around that is keeping the air from becoming saturated with moisture and dropping to the ground? Who knows. But it starkly highlights how verily one of the world's largest economies sits at the behest of mother nature. On a similar note, the recent drought in the US is creating a similar firestorm here--brace yourselves for higher corn prices, which means higher meat and poultry prices (because American animals aren't fed grass like they should be, but rather loads and loads of corn meal) and probably higher gas prices as the ethanol component of gasoline will become more expensive. And here we thought we were getting a reprieve at the gas pump.
Last time I flew to India, I regaled you with the story of the old gentleman who crabbily yelled at me in some mutilated form of Hindi and English the entire flight (remember, the guy who asked when I boarded, and I thought he was asking when I was born? Yes! That one!). This time, no such humor was involved on TheRanga's flight.
I found my seat, and lo and behold, I was again to be near an elderly gentleman who was so lost that he was actually sitting in my seat. Noticing that the man had a broken arm, I offered him my aisle seat in case he wanted more space, but he declined and moved to his window seat. After we got settled into our seats, we made the usual bit of small talk while taxiing. He asked me where I was headed, what I do, etc. Not wanting to have a one-way conversation, I reciprocated and asked him where he was off to. "St. Louis," he told me. "What will you be doing there? Vacation?" I asked. He paused a second, and then said this:
"About one fortnight ago, my daughter passed away in a bus accident in St. Louis. The bus hit a bridge pillar and we lost her immediately."
Um, holy shit. "Oh my god, I said. How did that happen?" I didn't really know what else to say.
"I believe the bus punctured a tire and veered off the road. We three were in the corner so were most severely injured. My daughter went immediately--she was the only victim on the bus. My wife's left leg was shattered, so she is still in the hospital there. As I've only sustained a broken arm, I took the body back to Mumbai this week for cremation and now will go back to be with my wife until she heals."
He then went on to tell me that his daughter had just finished her first year of a grad program in public health and had studied to be a dentist in India before that. She was 25 years old, he told me. Then he told me the reason he was asking me questions is because he thought maybe I would know US law and offer some advice on if/when/how he can get lawyers involved to seek some damages for the accident. Apparently the bus company has not uttered a word to him or his family throughout these last two weeks. Poor guy, throughout all of this, he also has to worry about finding a lawyer in a completely foreign country to deal with the bus company that just killed his daughter.
Anyway, I did some digging when I got to Amsterdam and sure enough, here it is. It seems that this particular family was seated a level above the driver in the front row of the bus, so the three of them got the brunt of the impact during the accident. What is more heartbreaking is that there are people filing lawsuits already against MegaBus, claiming personal injury and emotional distress from seeing a girl killed, etc. And yet the father of the girl who was killed doesn't even know how to contact a lawyer in the US. Unbelievably sad. And I'm trying to think of a way I can help, but I can't. Anyone, ideas? Perhaps you law-folk?
Sorry to re-open the blog on such a dour note. Upcoming posts will be much rosier, I promise!
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