Why you should not climb on the roof of stuff

Hey guys

First of all.. Thanks.. The response to the last post was awesome.. While it did not go viral like Kolaveri Di, it did increase the number of hits from a total of 100 to 251 at the time I write this. What was more surprising was the number of personal comments (mostly through gtalk and fb chat), that I received from my friends. This is highly encouraging to someone who is going through a quarter life crisis with no clue what his true “thing” is.. (You do realize, that the “some one is me.. right??)

So I have been thinking about a lot of topics to write about, My Las Vegas Trip (post is coming, I just have to get my angle right), the (in)famous slap (I actually wrote something, which I found a bit too serious and boring so did not post) and some other random stuff in life. But none of them was good enough.

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That is when this interesting article/news/warning came along. I did see it couple of times on FB and ignored it. But then this piece was going viral.

You know I don’t care for advice.. Especially random internet ones. For instance, I wont stop using trial rooms because I see loads of people advising me  not to, since there might be hidden cameras. (I would like to know for how much price my videos are eventually sold by whoever puts those cameras though, just out of curiosity)

Now there are various may be smaller versions available across internet on this. But I am going to use the most elaborate version of this “News” and “Warning”, that I could find

------The most Elaborate version of “Why you should not use flash lights in Railway Stations”-----------

With deep pains i am to inform You that yesterday morning, one (Mr. Aditya Suresh Joshi), age 19, studying in 1st year of engineering, died in Keshvani Hospital, Mumbai. He was admitted in Keshavani Hospital as burned patient.
4 days back this boy had gone to Amravati (One of the district place located in State of Maharashtra ) on study tour. After their study was over, he, his cl-assmates & his teachers, all of them were standing on “Badnera” railway station to catch the train. “Badnera” is the name of the railway station for” Amravati ” city.As soon as they arrived on Badnera Railway station, many of them started taking pictures of their friends using “Mobile Phones” and/or “Digital Camera”. One of them complained that, in his camera, he was not able to capture more number of friends in one frame. He was not able to catch the angle. Another boy suggested that let’s climb on train boogie and take picture so that all of them can be accommodated in single frame. At that there was one goods wagon (all of them were oil tankers) train resting between 2 main railway lines.Kumar Aditya climbed up oil boogie. Above his head, 40,000 volts electrical line was passing through. As soon as he clicked the digital camera? 40,000 volt current passed through the camera flash light to his camera and then from his camera to his fingers and then from his fingers to his body. All this happened within fraction of minutes. Next moment he was thrown from the top. His body was half burnedon the spot.
At that time, his father (my friend) was traveling in Bangkok . His many friends in Pune came to know about this via mobile SMS. They instantly arranged air ambulance in Amravati and his burned body was brought to Keshavani Hospital , Mumbai. i was told that this is the best hospital in Mumbai. For 1 and 1/2 day or so he was talking to his relatives. When he was admitted to the hospital, at that time only, doctor informed his relatives that don’t keep great hopes. Because of lot of complex issues in half burned body? He died yesterday morning.
Now how many of us are aware about this technological threats & dangers? Honestly, Kumar Aditya and his father was not aware. His family was not aware. Now should we call ourselves as fully educated and fully knowledgeable people? Please Think of it.

Please avoid mobile phones on petrol outlets.
Please avoid talking on mobile phones while driving. I also know many of my friends who do not bother about this good suggestion and each one of them have opted for “Chalta Hai Yaar Attitude”.
Please avoid talking on mobile phones while they are in charging mode.
Please avoid charging mobile phones near Your bed and/or near wooden furniture. Avoid mobile phones near high voltage electrical lines like railway stations and avoid using flash lights.

My friend, his family members and we all friends learned our lesson with loss of young life. Now Would You like to empower Your friends about this accident so as to avoid future accidents? We can save human life by empowering all the IT users who are in Your network?
What can we do ?

Please Please…..I request you to send this very important life threatening information to your loved ones…..

-------------------------------------------------End of the Plea -------------------------------------------

Okie .. So most probably, you have also read this. What is wrong with this? There is nothing wrong, except that the whole story might entirely be fake (please note I used “might” and not “is”)

Reasons

1)There is no report of this on any news paper website . If a 19 year old boy was electrocuted in a railway station, that would become news at least in local news. And if it is in news, given the amount of search engine optimization that news papers do, the news paper article should be the first one to show up instead of a thousand blogs and other user generated content

2) Amravati is 725 KM from Mumbai, which by road is sure to take 8-9 hours to reach. And I don’t think the airport is fully operational. Nagpur is much closer, wouldn’t it have made much more sense to take the boy there?

3)The Railway electricity lines are not 40 kV, but 25 kv (Source: Wikipedia,  Also I have seen the warning signs on railway bridges)

4) Keshvani Hospital: It took me a lot of google to  find out where this is. Apparently it is a cosmetic surgery clinic which is part of the Breach Candy hospital in Mumbai which besides Post Burn Reconstruction, also does breast implants and tattoo removal. Now I might be completely wrong here, but some one who had such a fatal accident would not be admitted in a cosmetic surgery wing. would he?

Now comes the second part of my problem. Let us say Kumar Aditya Suresh Joshi ( I am assuming that Kumar is a salutation, like a hindi version of Master), actually did meet with such an accident (I am leaving “unfortunate” deliberately out).

Is it not plain common sense  not to climb on a freaking bogie of a freaking train, even when you are 100% sure that it is run either using coal or diesel? Is it not even bigger common sense to not climb a train bogie when there is a 25 kV line a few meters (I searched for the exact height, but could not find it, but I don’t think it would be more than 3 meters from the roof of the train) above it? And further more when the said bogie is TANKER?? And you blame the POOR CAMERA and ITS FLASHLIGHT????

If he did not die, he should be hunt down and slapped a couple of times so that he does not climb on the roof of anything ever.

Now does this mean that I should stop using cameras and mobile phones in Railway Stations... No fucking way

I would never climb on a train of Indian Railways as long as I am sober. (Not only it is dangerous but also  disrespectful). In fact I would never climb on the roof of anything except my own house as long as I am sober. And if I am drunk enough to climb on the roof of other things, at that stage I typically leave my chances of being alive to the good deeds that my ancestors supposedly have done!!

Now some of the other suggestions might be good. I do not know the technical side of it.

Do not use mobile phones in petrol pumps – I don’t know what the problem is but I will try

Do not use mobile phones while driving – I already never do this. I typically pull over and then attend the call without turning off the engine at which point my dad reminds me that I am now a student and the global crude prices are soaring. I silently switch the engine off

Avoid using mobile in charging mode—why? I mean whats the problem?

Avoid charging mobile phones near bed or wooden furniture—Where will I charge it then? In a power plant? Or a substation?

Avoid mobile phones and flashlights in Railway stations—I most certainly will use mobile phones and Flash lights in railway stations

So dear readers, please, on my behalf, to save so many lives, which are destroyed because of the lack of knowledge, please share this message..

“Before the next time you decide to climb on the roof of stuff, especially moving ones, more specifically with high tension lines above, and/or stuff which carry HIGHLY INFLAMMABLE signs, please call your parents and let your parents know that they may not see you again” And tell them it is not the fault of the poor mobile phone

PS:My best guess is this whole story was started as a prank by four people, Kumar, Aditya, Suresh and Joshi... :D