JHARIA, India ¨C Video blogger Lalji Kurmi is waiting to go viral.
It¡¯s an unusual dream for a resident of India¡¯s oldest coalfield, Jharia, where fires rage underground, bare trees stand guard morosely around mines spewing dust and fumes ¡ª and where coal has provided work for at least four generations.
Kurmi, 32, was the first in his family to get an education: a diploma in mining. Now he and many other young people in the region want to leave their soot-blighted lives behind, even as coal production soars.
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