Gersoppa!

A shipwreck containing 200 tonnes of silver worth £150m has been discovered in the Atlantic – the largest haul of precious metal ever found at sea.

The SS Gairsoppa, a UK cargo ship sunk by a German U-boat in 1941, was found by US exploration firm Odyssey Marine.

The firm will retain 80% of the cargo’s value under the terms of a contract with the Department for Transport.

The vessel was on its way back to England from India when it ran low on coal in stormy weather, and tried to divert to Galway harbour, but it was spotted and sunk by the German U Boat.

Three members of the crew survived in a lifeboat and reached the Cornish coast two weeks later, but two died trying to get ashore.

The wreck of the 412ft ship was found this summer nearly 4,700m below the North Atlantic, 300 miles off the Irish coast, but it was only confirmed as SS Gairsoppa last week.

Odyssey Marine’s senior project manager, Andrew Craig, said: “We’ve accomplished the first phase of this project – the location and identification of the target shipwreck.

“Now we’re hard at work planning for the recovery phase.

“Given the orientation and condition of the shipwreck, we are extremely confident that our planned salvage operation will be well suited for the recovery of this silver cargo.”

SS Gairsoppa settled upright on the seabed with its cargo holds open, which means remote-controlled robotic submarines should be able to retrieve the bullion.

Odyssey’s chief marine archaeologist Neil Dobson said: “Even though records indicate that the lifeboats were launched before the ship sank, sadly most of her crew did not survive the long journey to shore.

“By finding this shipwreck and telling the story of its loss, we pay tribute to the brave merchant sailors who lost their lives.”

The merchant ship belonged to the British India Steam Navigation Company, and was ordered into the merchant navy fleet at the outbreak of World War II.

Now, why does Gersoppa, ring a bell

? Well, it happens to be the highest waterfall in this part of the world not very far from here at Bangalore.

Bangalore Tales!

About two score years ago, to this day, much before president Obama made a mention of the city and much before the word ‘Bangalored’ entered the English dictionary and hugely before Bangalore became Bengaluru much to the chagrin of the non Kannadiga, Bangalore was on the front pages of almost every major newspaper of the world.
It all started with, the former Indian Prime Minister being blown to bits by a suicide bomber in a small, decrepit, dust bowl of a town in Tamil Nadu called Sriperumbudur. The local master mind of this rather dastardly act relocated to Bangalore and made his home not too far from where I stay in the suburbs of Bangalore.
To cut to the chase, Sivarasan, more famously called the one eyed jack and his cronies died by their own hand when cornered by the police in the house that they were holed up in. Sivarasan blew his brains out and the rest chose to bite on a capsule of cyanide and apparently died in a ghastly embrace.
Apparently the police were lead to this solitary house by the local milk distributor, Haalina Muniyamma or milk Muniyamma. This brave lady showed the chutzpah to identify and inform the police of the whereabouts of the dangerous killers.
In the hoopla surrounding the event she was promised a reward, which has not materialized as promised. She is further astounded that Priyanka Gandhi, daughter of the slain PM, visited one of the conspirators in jail and ‘forgave’ her!( Vote Bank Politics is what some might say ) ‘What of my poor family?’, laments the old lady. ‘Does anybody care?’ To add insult to injury Muniyamma’s son was denied a police job because he could not grease the right palm, she says. She had led a simple life. Her life changed after the incident at Konakunte. For some time, she even had to live under police protection. "I was promised reward of Rs 10 lakh but nothing happened. After much pleading, I got Rs 60,000 in 1992,'' she recalls.
What a sham.Whoever said, that the world is a fair place?

***** Prisons!

Professionals from abroad working in India have a morbid fear of landing themselves in an Indian prison and rightly so considering the way our prisons are said to run and maintained.

However with growing liberalization, wealth and opportunity, prison is home to quite a few big wigs these days, both from the south and the north of India. No discrimination there.

With this influx there is a good chance that we shall soon see 5 star prisons!

Teachers Day!

Teacher’s day, when I was at school was big ticket. The day was viewed with certain amount of anticipation and excitement. My mother after a great deal of pester would conjure up a bouquet for my favorite teacher and principal, which would eventually get tossed into a large heap.
Teacher’s day was also about getting an opportunity to teach junior kids, as the teachers would take a break from the class for the day and entertain themselves at school, or so we thought.
For me, alas, the opportunity never came, simply because I was never a teacher’s pet and I learnt very early that it pays to cozy up to the right people.
While not being able to teach kids at school, left a rather bitter taste in the mouth, I've made up for it by teaching big kids now and quite enjoying the journey.
Kids, these days do not humor me with flowers and cards, but many do call and say that somewhere I made a difference to their lives and those few words make it all worth the while.
Having seen many sides of the world I can safely say that teachers are some of the most poorly treated professionals and societies that do not recognize them are doing so at their own peril, because nobody became a somebody, without a teacher and great societies have had great teachers to get there.
!