These Stories Always... Affect Me, Viscerally. This Time, In Northern India -- 40 Miners... Trapped: Day Five.

This is technically wholly-unrelated to the subject of this blog -- but it is related, to how my youth led me to be able to. . . write this blog. So feel free to scroll on by, if it doesn't resonate with / interest you.

There has been another mine / tunnel collapse -- this time in Himalayan India (so, doubly resonant), working on a highway project. See at right. There is plenty of air, but if not reached in a few more days, water could become an issue. We will keep a good thought in our meditations for them. Here's Reuters on the latest:

. . .Rescue workers renewed efforts on Thursday to reach 40 men trapped for a fifth day inside a collapsed highway tunnel in India, though progress was slow as they began drilling through rock and soil debris.

Authorities said they were confident an advanced drilling machine flown in from New Delhi will speed up the rescue at the site in the northern state of Uttarakhand.

The plan is to drill and create space for a pipe that can be used by the trapped men to crawl to safety. . . .

My wish: "Let all those who've ever gone below, into the dark, with billions of tons of overhead rock, waiting to fall on them. . . forever keep in their hearts. . . those who still do." It is dangerous work -- and in India, it scarcely pays a living wage. Damn. Hoping for the best, here. And, this makes 4,700 posts at this joint. Out.

नमस्ते