Fuzz over a dying Dam

The controversies and talking  have been going on for a while. But the stakes are too simple to digest.
A dam was build by colonists to water their colonial capital and suburbs . On independence , the dam became the part of a state and the benefited ,the neighbour .
Now to the reality. It’s been 108 years since the dam was constructed . The age estimated for the dam at the time of construction was 75 years. The dam was constructed using century old technology using limestone as base.
The dam has been leaking and splitting up with cracks all over during the last decade. And the dam is situated at one of the most rain dense states. Which means the dam has to operate at full capacity at almost through  the year.
And the state owning the dam suggested on decommissioning the dam and constructing a new one with common funding. And with this all problem started. Benefited neighbour don’t want any block in their water supply,even when human lives are at stake. For centuries , the people who maintained and supported the neighbour with the most precious resource water was showered with gratitude by attacking the people who demanded the construction of a new dam. This is the snapshot and the readers are invited to share their insight.

Scribbles

With myself moving to the android crazy hunks, I have been busy exploring the opportunities it puts on front of me in terms of simplicity , convenience and technology at hand.
While scribbling this post sitting in a commute to office , I no longer complaint about time to think or type out. I am so excited thinking about the way technology keeps on adding convenience to human life.
Said so, you can read more and more realistic posts from today with the new insight .

Is Mumbai really safe for IT Professionals?

With bombs blasting the streets of Mumbai like crackers, the justification of the prime metro being most insecure city in the country is rising. People started looking the Bombing charts for anniversaries, Day 13 or annual celebration of any terrorist groups before visiting Mumbai. Because, each of these events just another reason for a detonation.

I read a report on hoe insecure Mumbai has become for common people. Also, the fact that the Terrorist like ‘Kasab‘ still alive on Indian soil eating the bites from hard earned tax payers cash for his security and trial, which is going on for years. Why cant the govt shoot the balls out of his brains for the atrocity and murders he has caused in Mumbai and to the common Indian people. Fact is I don’t have the guts to take an offer from any of the firms from Mumbai just because of sheer fear. I wont even choose to visit Mumbai as a tourist unless government has some effective plans to bring Mumbai under control.

My opinion about Mumbai is that in this city, terror and crime has deep roots with the society. Here, crime arises out of poverty and living conditions and the fittest takes the limelight of Ibrahims and Shakeel’s. But, even more than them, the religious terrorism from the backhouse of Pakistan training rooms are the most threatening to India. I am just a citizen who can opinion about. But as long as the power house of Indian administration close eyes to the barbarism that occurs right in front of them, Mumbai is not a safe land of anyone, atleast I believe so.

End of vacation

It’s been again a long break from the world of words. It’s a fact that when you are stinking in some area, you smell shit entirely. I was much bored by the kind of routine I was having in my job, started infecting my mind and body. I lost my passion to blog and kept away from my guitar. 4 months seems a long time, when I lost finding redemption.

But things will not remain all the same. I am changing the reins of my career and so is the attitude towards all the passion that kept rusting. Maybe this post is just a reconciliation of a old writer who forgot his pen somewhere. And the moment, he finds the pen from a mass of junk; his first reaction would be to ink down something. I am in the same trance now.

For the last few months, I kept most of the entertainment to old music, sometimes new songs finding space in the playlist. And the lack of interesting movies and the slow speed of the internet connection fully prevented me to have enough download of movies to keep me occupied.

It is just recently that many things occurred to me in a way that could be said as life changer. One is that I am moving to my ever career dream of a functional role than a technical role. That means gone are the days of programming. I always wanted to move from the developer stint to a business role. And here I am, on the verge of joining the dream position.

It was a hard time clubbing these many words together to form meaning. I had a hard time, since I think I have lost the flow of words. Should be working hard on the same. Ceeya..

NATIONAL FIRE SERVICE DAY – 14th APRIL

Every Year 14^th April is observed as Fire Service Day in India as a part to pay homage to those brave Fire Fighters, who sacrificed their live in line to their duty on 14^th April, 1944. Industries observe this day / week as Fire Service day / Week and conducts Training, Drills and Rehearsals to demonstrate the Preparedness to combat emergencies.

The Ship in which accident took place named S S Fort Stikline having capacity of 7000 Tons belonged to Ministry of War and Transport. The ship left Birkinhead – UK on 24^th February, 1944. Convey of 20 other ships with cargo for Karachi and Bombay was loaded. The Karachi Cargo Contained RAF Planes, General Stores, Explosives and Ammunitions. Bombay Cargo was 1395 Tons of Explosives and Ammunitions and Service Stores. The ship reached Karachi on 30^th March, 1944 where a part of Cargo was discharged, leaving void 2, 86,000 cu. Feet in her hold. The new Cargo loaded was cotton, timber, lubricating oil, resin, sulphur and other combustible material. The ship then left Karachi on 9^th April, 1944 and reached Bombay on 9^th April, 1944. No explosives or ammunition were off loaded until the ship has been alongside for 24 hours.

ACCORDING TO THE  BYE LAWS OF B.P.T [ Bombay Port Trust]

• A Ship carrying explosives is not allowed into docks, but under Rule 88 of the Defense of India Rules, this Bye-Law is suspended in case where Military Officer has given a Certificate of “GRAVE EMERGENCY”. Such a certificate was issued for S S Stiklite

The ship was anchored at Victoria Dock Bombay and the Memorable Day, throughout the morning, she was active as cargo hooks swayed a load of commodities from the S S Fort Stikline. Firemen were at Fire Stations as usual shining their brass to keep their fire engines shining.

On 14^th April, 1944, at 1400 hrs

A Whiff of smoke noticed from No.: II hold of the ship. Frantic series of short blast of whistles were heard warning of fire board. The ship crew started pouring musky water in the ship hold. Fire Engines from Alexandra Dock and Air Force Squad arrived immediately and started hose streams in smoking hold to control fire spread. The firemen though aware of the dangerous situation, there was no panic. The prompt arrival of the Fire Engines seemed no reason to think that the fire could not be controlled. Soon it became apparent that the firemen were loosing ground. A call was put through to Mumbai Fire Brigade control for Additional appliances. At 14.30 hrs, a large part of Fire Service was on pliers. Total 32 Water Jets came into action pouring gallons of water into ship hold to quench the fire. The Fire was still gained. There was something preventing the water from reaching the seat of fire. The deck head under the firemen’s feet grew hotter and hotter. The water stream played over the deck head turned into steam. It was now clear that the fire was out of control. Slides and Deck became CHERRY RED, blenching thick black and brown smoke. Flames shot mast high but sound never reached firemen’s ear.

1605 Hrs. ~ Ground Rumbled and EXPLOSION,

S S Fort Stikline Blew Up with its gallant firemen and fire engines disappeared from the face of earth. No. of ships destroyed nearby. At one stroke, the key port of Bombay was taken out of war.

1636 Hrs. ~ SECOND EXPLOSION,

Explosion was heard miles away. Entire Dock upto few kms was in flames. 14 other ships standing aside destroyed. 336 people burned. All nearby/around people and animals died. Many Fire Fighters died or disabled. The Number of persons who died in the Explosion will never be known and figures are conflicting. NFPA Handbook listed 731 dead whereas other sources said 1500 Died/Missing and more than 3000 Injured.

Couple of months after the Disaster, 3083 people had requested claims for damage by Fire or Explosion to their property. 11735 had put up Claim for uninsured properties. 466 Uninsured people claimed as compensation for personal injuries.

The Compensation paid out 850 Lakhs as damage by fire/explosion. Marine Insurance was 150 Lakhs. Paid for uninsured properties was 300 lakhs and personal injuries was 13 lakhs with miscellaneous policies of 4.5 lakhs.

Government of India declared this day of 14^th April every year to be observed as Fire Service Day in recognition of the valor and sacrifice of the courageous FIRE FIGHTERS who laid down their lives in Line of their Duty.

Industries conduct Fire Fighting Training Mock Drills, Fire Drills or Emergency Drills every year on this day to pay homage and create awareness and knowledge about handling emergencies in their fellow workers.