XANDER'S DEATH BLOW THE LATEST IN A CHORUS OF STORMS RAVAGES THE INDIAN FEDERATION BWUNN, Home Bureau Kanwar Vishalakshi Devi, the curator of Jagan Mohan Palace, watched in utter dismay as his beautiful artworks flew across the purple sky like a parade of paper birds. He was powerless to save his precious watch. A storm named Xander was ripping the whole city of Mysore apart. Typhoon number 50 had raged out of the Indian Ocean en route to the Western Ghats. Every landmark in Mysore-the Lalitha Mahal and Maharajah's Palaces, the Sandalwood and Silk Factory, Srirangapatana, the Ranganathittu Bird Sanctuary-were all in ruins. One hundred and thirty-seven clicks away, in Karnataka's capital of Bangalore, the scene was much the same. The so-called Garden City bore much of the brunt of Xander's onslaught. Delicate blossoms littered the utterly flooded landscape of the IU's technical and scientific capital. On the main campus of our own Bangalore World University, students and faculty struggled to rescue what they could from the invaluable laboratories, archives, and experiments that drive some of the world's greatest engines of progress. Even the vast array of subterranean colleges of the Institute of Computing and School of Advanced Storage felt Xander's wrath. Many were engulfed beneath the torrent. Despite the best buffers and compartmentalization, everything was affected by the rippling waves of lightning. Darius Rham Putra, the Master of BWU, spoke only briefly about a disaster that defies description. Clearly shaken, he wept over the loss of life, landscape, and legacy. Millions are homeless in his home country. He could only offer solace and contemplate rebuilding in a land beset by increasingly angry skies. Jaya Gajendra Wadiyar, Bangalore's City Governor, was less hesitant about his feelings and observations. He suspects a Tamil plot. Noting the precise nature of the storm's path, Mr. Wadiyar accused his neighbors to the south of conspiring with the generals of Pakistan to use the weather to hammer and break up the Indian Federation. Karnataka's PM, Maharajkumari Chamaraja Singh, called this accusation reckless and absurd. While he appointed Commissioner R.K. Gower to launch an investigation into the cause of the region's meteorological woes, he dared not offer any premature musings. Mr. Singh remains the able diplomat. Commissioner Gower took care to deflect what he called "rash queries" about the Thor Project. Preaching calm and assuring a quick vigorous investigation, Mr. Gower said that we "would all know soon as to why nature has unleashed this plague of storms." All of us hope so. All of us at BWUNN extend our profound sympathies and a modest offer of assistance to the people of Karnataka and everyone in the IF and surrounding South Asia region.