under the fire star

As part of my entry in the New Blog Showcase, I have to vote for three other contestants (you can still vote for me, if you wish, by linking to Chitra Talkies - the contest ends tomorrow, Sunday the 5th). I therefore cast my votes for:

All Day Permanent Red.

Huntington's Disease Blog.

Apropros of Nothing.

There, that's done.

From today's Indian Express (Note: a havan is a Hindu ritual involving making offerings to a ceremonial fire):

NEW DELHI, JULY 4: Put yourself in the shoes of the relatives of those killed in the Golconda train accident. Guess what a senior Railway Board official tells you as words of comfort? That he plans a havan since the ‘‘stars and planets’’ could be behind the accident, even a UFO (unidentified flying object).

If it hadn’t been for the tragedy, you could dismiss this story as a joke. Instead, it’s another bizarre reminder of what’s wrong with the Railways.

A top Railway Board official briefed a few reporters today insisting that his name not be used. ‘‘Coming from a science background,’’ he said, ‘‘earlier even I did not believe that adverse planetary configuration could cause accidents. But now I must say, I tend to believe it. After all even that is scientific.’’

You can doubt his rationality but not his seriousness. Citing the 1988 derailment of Island Express train into a lake in Kerala, he said that it had been blamed on a tornado. ‘‘However, a physicist had done some research and found that the radioactivity near the accident site was much higher than that in the surrounding areas. It was a UFO which had apparently passed causing the train to derail,’’ he said with a straight face. .. (more)