CHENNAI: For S Ashokan and Pushpanjali, it was the toughest decision of their life. Struggling to cope with the news of their 15-year-old elder son having suffered serious injuries in a road accident, the doctor-couple had to discuss donating his organs even as he was battling for life. On Tuesday morning, after doctors declared Hithendran ‘brain dead’ his parents decided to donate all his organs — his heart, kidneys, liver and eyes — to different hospitals in the city. “We thought he would bring us laurels with his academic excellence. But now he has earned fame by donating his organs to five or six people. I am happy he lives through others, even though we miss him,” Ashokan said.

Despite going through intense trauma after being told that their son was unlikely to regain consciousness, Ashokan and Pushpanjali signed the necessary papers to donate their son’s organs. Hithendran’s eyes were donated to Sankara Nethralaya, where two people will hopefully regain vision after surgery on Tuesday, while his heart was donated to a leading cardio-specialty hospital. His liver and kidneys were retained and harvested at Apollo Hospitals, where he was admitted, and his bone marrow would be banked for treatment of cancer patients.

The family is from Thirukazhukunram, a town in Chengalpattu district, about 50 km from Chennai. At about 6.30 pm on Saturday, Hithendran, who had a fancy for bikes, took his father’s vehicle, despite his mother’s objections, and sped away to see some friends. His mother’s plea to him to wear a helmet was drowned by the sound of the bike speeding away.

On his way back, the boy swerved while trying to avoid a speeding bus and hit a stationary wood-laden fish cart. He was thrown off the bike and suffered grievous injuries.

AGARTALA: Serial bomb blasts rocked Tripura on Wednesday evening, leaving two dead and more than 50 wounded. Blasts occured in Gul Bazaar, Radha Nagar and GB Bazaar in Agartala, Tripura.
Twenty of the injured are stated to be in critical condition. The blasts went off at Agartala’s main shopping area Maharaja Ganju Bazar, Gobind Ballah Pant market, busy Radhanagar bus stand, Agartala Motorstand and Abhay Nagar localities. Barely two days ago, eight people died in crude bomb explosions at Malegaon in Maharashtra and Modasa in Gujarat.
Two weeks ago, a bomb explosion at Mehrauli in Delhi left one dead and several injured.
source:timesofindia.indiatimes.com

Two crude bombs hit Malegaon in Maharashtra, killing 7 and injuring 30, and Modasa in Sabarkantha district of Gujarat killing oneThe mangled remains of a mobike that was parked at the Malegaon blast site.
The pattern of attack mirrored the one last Saturday in Mehrauli in Delhi. In both the cases, youth on motorcycles threw a plastic bag containing the low-grade explosives.
Bike blasts near SIMI’s Malegaon office kill 7 Two mysterious blasts in the Bhikku Chowk area of Malegaon killed seven people on Monday night and injured 30 others. The wounded were rushed to the nearby Noor Hospital and Faran Hospital. Two of the wounded were reportedly injured when police opened fire to disperse a mob. Three policemen were also reportedly hurt.
Curfew was imposed in the eastern part of communally-sensitive powerloom town of Malegaon after the blast and stone-pelting by a mob.
The location where the blasts took place also happens to be outside the building where the banned SIMI had its office. It is opposite Nisar Dairy and Bhikku Hotel. A Hero Honda motorbike, which was parked at the blast site, was completely mangled. While senior police officers said they were cylinder blasts, angry local residents insisted that bombs had been set off.

Additional SP (Malegaon) Sanjay Patil said that the explosions took place on a motorcycle. “Soon a huge mob gathered and they pelted stones at the police. We fired five rounds in retaliation. A huge crowd gathered and prevented the police from entering the area. There is tension and we have summoned additional forces. The exact number of injured people cannot be quantified now, but the mob attacked us brutally,” a police officer said.

Four companies of the State Reserve Police have been deployed. Malegaon sub-divisional magistrate Ajay More said the situation was tense. “Three policemen, including an IPS probationer Viresh Prabhu, are injured. Prabhu was hit by a stone and has a big gash on his head. We have admitted the policemen to Wadia Hospital,” he said.

While some police blamed cylinders for the blasts, other officials said the pattern was similar to the recent Delhi blasts, where two unknown persons came on a motorcyle and flung a bomb in the crowded Mehrauli market.

The Malegaon blasts took place at around 9.30 pm when a Ramzan special prayer was being offered in all mosques across the town. This is the second time that Malegaon has been hit by blasts. Earlier, on September 8, 2006, four bombs had been planted on cycles and went off in the textile town, killing 31 and injuring 297 others. Nine SIMI suspects had been arrested for the 2006 blasts.

Residents of Malegaon alleged that Monday’s blasts were a conspiracy to disturb the law and order situation two days prior to Eid. “I saw people running helter-skelter on the road and youths were taking the injured to the hospital,” said Khaleel Ahmed who stays in the vicinity.

Thousands of women were shopping at the time of the blasts. Bhikku Chowk is located between three mosques. The SIMI office, which is located on the first floor of a building, was functional till the outfit was banned on October 24, 2001. Bhikku Chowk also houses around six tea stalls.

A team of forensic experts from Nashik were reaching Malegaon to gather evidence from the blast site. An Anti-Terrorism Squad team had also reached Malegaon and have started investigations, said ATS chief Hemant Karkare.
sources:timesofindia.indiatimes.com

You’ve seen pictures of the planet Saturn, sur- rounded by its system of rings, but would you be surprised if you looked up at night to see a ring around the moon? In fact, it’s sometimes possible to see just this. There’s even a folk rhyme about it– When there’s a ring around the moon, rain or snow is coming soon. Is there really, sometimes, a ring around the moon?  

Unlike Saturn, which has actual, physical rings, the ring you can sometimes see around the moon is merely an optical illusion. It’s an effect of our own atmosphere that meteorologists call a “halo effect,” because diffracted light rays create a halo around a bright object.

Here’s how it works: Moon halos are caused by tiny ice crystals that have gathered twenty thousand feet above the ground, as thin, wispy clouds. These clouds are so thin, you might not notice them at night, if it weren’t for their effect on the moonlight. Incoming light rays from the moon are bent–or “diffracted”–by these ice crystals at an angle of twenty-two degrees. This means that in addition to the direct moonlight, you will also see diffracted moonlight in a circle twenty-two degrees away from the moon. This is about the distance of your fist, held at arm’s length. Like a rainbow, this halo can even be slightly colored; red on the inside, and blue on the outside.

And, yes, it can mean that rain or snow is coming soon. Those high, wispy clouds could be the forerunners of storm clouds right behind them.