Local news

I thought I'd just share a couple of news items that are in today's paper over here. While India is positioning itself as a world leader in IT, a growing economy and a nuclear power, these sort of things still happen:

Tongue sacrificed: In a bizarre ritual, a woman on Saturday cut off her tongue and offered it to the goddess Kali at a temple in Hardoi, Uttar Pradesh. The woman, Rekha, made the sacrificial offering at a Kali temple in Maholia Sivpar area in the district and the police contingent had to be deployed in the area as a precautionary measure.

Uttar Pradesh is a state in the north of the country, bordered by the Himalayas. Now, quite why the police were deployed I'm not sure. Maybe they were afraid of a sudden rash of tongue removals...

Bollywood sizzler Rakhi Sawant has been booked by the police for 'indecent behaviour' and 'destroying public peace' Sawant had performed at a promotional show here (in Kolhapur) which had to be abruptly stopped after some miscreants went on the rampage, breaking chairs and clashing with security guards while trying to cross the barricades to reach the stage.... "Sawant's clothes were too embarrassing for the public. The commotion erupted after the crowds found her clothes and performance extremely provocative" DSP Shahaji Umap told the Sunday Times of India on Saturday. He said the police were planning to arrest her and bring her to Kolhapur in connection with her case.

She's not entirely unattractive it must be said:


Kolhapur is in the state of Maharashtra which border Karnataka. So, a bunch of boozed up men couldn't restrain themselves and it is the woman who gets arrested for 'provoking' them... There are still a lot of things in this country that need changing but social and cultural changes like that require a lot of time. India is going to continue to be a mass of contradictions for many years to come.