What connects Chile, Raniganj & Tham Luang? | #182
+ Why Amitabh Bachchan doesn’t endorse soft drinks ⏩
Hello Friends,
As we write this newsletter, 41 workers are still trapped inside a portion of the Silkyara Bend - Barkot tunnel. The rescue teams are trying really hard to overcome multiple challenges and extricate the workers.
Sadly, there have been similar cases in the past, that have received worldwide attention. This week’s newsletter does a deep dive on three such stories.
Things we learnt this week 🤓
A mining disaster that got truly global coverage was the Chilean mining crisis in 2010 where 33 men were trapped 700m underground for over 69 days. Among the 33 rescued, only one of them has a Wikipedia page - Franklin Lobos, the 27th miner to be rescued. Dubbed El Mortero Magico (the magic mortar) for his thunderous long-distance free-kicks, the midfielder was a stalwart of first division side Cobresal throughout the 1980s. Post-retirement, he fell on hard times and became a taxi driver. In 2005, he became a miner. In his first year as a miner, he was trapped inside a mine when a fire broke out. The exit was blocked for a whole day. He was eventually rescued. After his rescue in 2010, he was given a football at the spot to acknowledge his past as a player. All those freekicks had given him plenty of opportunity to perform under pressure.
On the topic of football and narrow escapes do you remember the 2018 rescue of a junior Thailand football team trapped in the Tham Luang Caves? The team was trapped inside the caves for more than two weeks as water levels inside the cave began to rise. This incident also gave us a glimpse of Elon Musk’s trigger-happy tweeting. When someone asked him if he could help, Elon got into the act and produced a mini-submarine. He showed off a video on the platform on how it could work and said it was dispatched to Thailand, but was never used. It took a rescue effort of more than 10K people but eventually all the children and the coach were rescued. It wasn’t entirely a happy ending though. Two divers passed away - 1 during the rescue and and 1 later from a blood infection contracted during the operation. Also in October 2023, the captain of the football team - Duangphet Phromthep, who was in England on a football scholarship, committed suicide at the young age of 17. Rest in peace, kid.
Talking of incidents closer home - Back in 1989, a team of 220 miners were working in coal extraction using controlled detonations, in Raniganj West Bengal. Concurrently, the area was also undergoing significant flooding. Unfortunately the mine's upper layer was accidentally disrupted, resulting in an abrupt surge of water into the mine. After an initial evacuation, 71 miners were still trapped. It was the ingenious idea of Jaswant Singh Gill, the additional chief mining engineer at the time, to construct a steel capsule capable of transporting one person at a time through a borewell. He rescued 65 miners. This act was commemorated in a film called Mission Raniganj, starring Akshay Kumar. Though critically lauded, it flopped on release. Clearly changing the film’s subtitle from ‘The Great Indian rescue’ to the ‘The Great Bharat rescue’ didn’t entice the patriotic public to watch the film.
From IWTK, with love 💌
Amitabh Bachchan doesn’t endorse soft drinks based on the advice of Baba Ramdev. Another insane snippet from our Brand Blitz quiz about an iconic ad.
There is a brand called Jeremy’s which has 2 chocolate variants. He/him and She/her. Can you guess what is the difference between the 2? Here is the answer.
Only In India 🇮🇳
We’d rather have our hands off a Python tbh.
Stay hydrated,
❤️ IWTK