Flames engulf tanker train in India's Tamil Nadu
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New York Times
6 hours ago
- New York Times
A Father Braces for Life After a Plane Crash Took His ‘Everything'
Before dawn, in the solitude of his upstairs room, Anil Ambalal Patel prepared to say a last goodbye to the couple who had brought love back into his life. Lingering in his bed, the city around him still asleep, he stared at the two faces on his phone screen: his son, Harshit, and his daughter-in-law, Pooja. He stared and stared, and then moved the phone close to his lips, giving each forehead a kiss. They were gone now, and what little joy he had finally found after years of hardship was gone, too. On this day, he would be with them once more as he scattered their ashes in the Narmada River, at the junction where three streams meet. Twelve days earlier, Mr. Patel, a 60-year-old widower who works for a security company in Ahmedabad, India, had wished Harshit and Pooja safe travels after they spent two weeks with him on a surprise visit from Britain, where they had moved in search of a better life. And then suddenly they were taken from him, killed along with 239 others when Air India Flight 171 crashed soon after it took off on June 12 and burst into an inferno. 'They were my everything,' he said of the couple in an interview. 'They were my support.' In its vast sprawl, in its deep inequality, India can feel like a pit that swallows people like the Patels — the poor, the aspiring — and renders them nameless, numbers rounded off in a nation of 1.4 billion people. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Yahoo
14 hours ago
- Yahoo
India's river divers risk health in search for hidden treasures
By Bhawika Chhabra NEW DELHI (Reuters) -At the crack of dawn, Ramu Gupta slings a blue bag onto his shoulder and heads to the Yamuna River in the Indian capital in search of his fortune. The 67-year-old is one of hundreds of gotakhors, or divers, who go to the river to hunt for coins, trinkets, discarded bottles and shards of metal and wood that can be sold in Delhi's booming scrap market. 'I earn approximately 5,000 Indian rupees ($58) in a month from this,' said Gupta, who spends his days working as a toilet cleaner near the shack where he lives. He saves the extra income for his two grandchildren, hoping to split it between them when they grow up. Hindus consider rivers as holy and pilgrims toss offerings including coins, coconuts and flowers into the water for the "river goddess' who sustains lives by giving water for drinking and irrigation. They regard the Yamuna River, which originates in the Himalayas, as one of the most sacred in India, cremating the dead on its banks and throwing their most precious possessions, including jewellery, into the waters along with their loved ones' ashes. Gupta and his fellow divers swim beneath the polluted waters, often risking their health in their search for riches. He is at the river in the morning and evening seven days a week, and goes to his regular work during the day – a routine that he has followed for 35 years. Arvind Kumar, 29, has been working on the river full time for nearly 12 years. 'There is no fixed income from this kind of work,' said Kumar, who earns up to 600 Indian rupees per day on average, below the government's minimum daily wage of 710 Indian rupees for an unskilled worker. Mostly, the divers collect coins, bottles and plastics. Occasionally they might discover some slivers of gold. More rarely, gold rings and necklaces. Sometimes, they also find bodies, and then the police might call on them to help retrieve them. If they see people carried away by the currents, they might try to rescue them. This makes the divers 'happier than the person rescued,' Gupta said. A devout Hindu, Gupta said he was not afraid of the river because he had the protection of 'Mata Rani', the Hindu mother goddess. 'So why be scared?" he asked. 'If she wants, I will die, if she wants me to live, she'll save me.' ($1 = 85.85 Indian rupees)
CBS News
17 hours ago
- CBS News
Fall River mayor says 2 employees of assisted living facility working on night of deadly fire
The mayor of Fall River said only two people were working at the Gabriel House in Fall River when a fire broke out Sunday night, killing nine residents at the assisted living facility. An employee told CBS News both workers were new to the job. There were 70 residents living in the building at the time. Thirty people were hurt in the fire. Mayor Paul Coogan said the owner of the facility is no longer picking up the phone. "To me, he should be down here every day. Just like we are, just like you guys are," said Fall River Mayor Paul Coogan. Forty-eight hours after a devastating fire tore through the assisted living facility, the mayor says the owner of the Gabriel House is no longer cooperating. "But I want him to know that these are his residents, and he might as well push them on the sidewalk and say have a nice day if he's not going to follow up," Mayor Coogan said. Nine people died, all of the victims over 60 years old. They include Eleanor Willett, Margaret Dudy, Vietnam veteran Richard Rochon and Rui Albernaz. "Everybody still can't process all of this. It's a lot to take in," said Robert Albernaz, whose brother died in the fire. Albernaz stopped by the facility Tuesday after visiting the funeral home to make arrangements for his brother's service. "I just don't understand how his room was the last one," Albernaz said. "His room is right beside of an exit, and he didn't come out. I still can't get over that." By nightfall, candles lined the sidewalk in front of the building. Earlier in the day, people laid flowers and crosses. Including Marie Khoury. Her sister, a longtime resident here, was able to escape Sunday night. "We are all very grateful to God that she is still with us," Khoury said. "She could've been gone." While some gathered to grieve investigators were working on every floor of the building, working to determine how the fire started. WBZ obtained years' worth of city inspections on Gabriel House. They do not detail code violations but show a seven-year gap between inspections that ended last year. At a city council meeting Tuesday night residents voiced concerns over public safety. A representative of the firefighters' union pushed back against the mayor who claimed the union was playing politics by making calls for more staffing in the wake of this tragedy. "Politics is what cut our companies, and politics is what cost people their lives," Fall River Firefighters Union president Michael O'Regan said.
