Bhopal Update

On September 14, 2009, 14 Bhopalis were arrested, two of whom were 16-year-olds, and one three-year-old girl. The Bhopalis, including Satinath "Satyu" Sarangi, the director of Sambhavna Trust clinic, were burning an effigy in protest of Jairam Ramesh, the Minister of State for Environment and Forests.

Why?

Two days prior to this incident, Jairam Ramesh visited the abandoned pesticide factory in Bhopal. During his visit, Ramesh jeered at the tragedy. “I went inside today, touched toxic material and I am alive. I am not coughing,” he quipped.

Ramesh also insinuated that Union Carbide's sabotage theory more accurately depicted the cause of the disaster than Carbide's failure to fulfill many safety precautions.

If you care to voice your feelings inspired by Jairam Ramesh's unscientific statements, we encourage you to e-mail or text Ramesh at jairam@sansad.nic.in or +91 9868181302.

Reading reading reading...

Currently we are preparing ourselves for our departure at the end of the month. We're doing a bunch of reading, researching and fundraising. I (Dede) am reading In spite of the Gods: The Strange Rise of Modern India by Edward Luce and Alizarin is reading Maximum City by Suketu Mehta. Other books that we have read recently about or set in India include Family Matters and Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry (both amazing), White Tiger by Aravind Adiga (not as good), and From Midnight to Millenium by Shashi Tharoor. We are also studying pages of dense, technical information about the Bhopal disaster in the Bhopal Reader and I'll soon be starting Animal's People by Indra Sinha (a novel based on the aftermath of the Bhopal disaster). Any reccomendations or thoughts on novels and non-fiction about India would be awesome.