The small Indian village of Gummatapura is famous all over the world for its unique way of ending the annual Diwali celebrations – a massive cow dung battle called “Gorehabba”.

Spain has La Tomatina, a famous battle with tomatoes, Italy has the traditional Ivrea Battle of Oranges, and India has Gorehabba, a cow dung battle to end the important Diwali festivities. That may seem like an insult to Indian festivities, but only to those ignorant to the importance and significance of cow dung in Indian culture. It’s held in such high regard that companies use it as an ingredient for beauty products, handcrafted art, and even radiation repelling devices. Some claim it can even ward off the coronavirus… So yes, hurling cow dung at each other is far from disgusting for the dozens who participate in Gorehabba.

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Two Indian conmen from India’s Uttar Pradesh state were arrested this week for allegedly conning a local physician into paying them a whopping $335,000 for a magical lamp capable of granting him any wish.

Dr Laeek Khan, a physician from the Khairnagar area, in Meerut city, first met the conmen in 2018, when visiting a patient’s home to dress her wounds following a surgery. One day, while at Sameena’s home, the doctor met a self-described ‘tantrik’ who boasted about his magical powers, and later promised to make Khan a billionaire. The tantrik, named Islamuddin, soon introduced the doctor to his partner, Anees, and the two offered to sell him a real-life wish-granting Aladdin Ka Chirag (Aladdin’s Lamp) for only 2.5 crore ($335,000). The London-trained doctor agreed…

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Vallabhbhai Kathiria, the chairman of a federal body on animal husbandry in India, recently sparked controversy among his countrymen by promoting cow dung ‘chips’ that can allegedly reduce mobile phone radiation and shield users from disease.

Named ‘Gausatva Kavach’, the cow dung chip is said to be manufactured by Rajkot-based Shrijee Gaushala (cow shelter) as part of an initiative to promote cow dung products. The aim is to have 500 gaushalas produce the anti-radiation dung chips, which cost between Rs. 50 ($0.70) and Rs. 100 ($1.40). Through Rashtriya Kamdhenu Aayoghe (RKA), the federal body on animal husbandry, the Indian Government wants to popularize cow dung chips in India, but also sell its products abroad, including in the United States.

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A 28-yeear-old married man from India recently made international news headlines for lying to his family about getting infected with the new coronavirus as an excuse to run away with his lover.

On July 24, Manish Mishra called his wife to say that he had tested positive for Covid-19 and that he didn’t want to live anymore. He then proceeded to shut off his phone, which caused his family to panic. His wife called her brother for help after receiving the bizarre call, and he advised her to file a missing persons report with the Navi Mumbai police. The investigation that followed showed that the 28-year-old supervisor had actually used the dreaded illness as a pretext to leave his family and elope with his mistress.

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Laungi Bhuiyan, a pensioner from the Indian state of Bihar, has become known as “Canal Man” after it was revealed that he spent 30 years of his life digging a 3-kilometer-long water canal, all by himself, using hand tools.

The remote village of Kothilawa, in the Lahthua area of Gaya district, had always suffered water shortages, with most of the rainwater falling in the nearby hills flowing into the river, instead of towards the village. This was one of the reason that some residents decided to move away and start anew, but one man decided to stay behind and fix the problem instead of running away from it. 30 years ago, local man Laungi Bhuiyan decided to take matters into his own hands and dig a canal to bring the water from the hills to a pond near his village. No one offered to help, so for three long decades he dug the 4-feet wide and 3-feet deep canal himself, using only whatever hand tools he had available.

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A 7-year-old boy from India’s Uttar Pradesh state has been dubbed ‘Spider Boy’ for his ability to effortlessly scale 10ft walls using nothing but his bare hands and feet.

Yasharth Singh Gaur, a class three student from the Indian city of Kanpur, was inspired by Marvel’s popular Spider-Man to try and scale the walls of his home. It seemed impossible at first, but he kept at it and before long he was able to climb the corners of his room with only his hands and feet. His brother started telling people about Yasharth’s special ability and word about the real-life Spider man started spreading around the city.

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At just 23-years-old, Dr. Veeragandham Teja had already worked in 16 private hospitals, conducted several medical camps and had volunteered with Bengaluru police and local migrant workers during the pandemic. Not a bad record for any doctor, let alone a 5th grade dropout with no medical education and little training…

Veeragandham Teja had been working as a doctor for over four years when his luck finally came to an end. It was a double whammy that got him in the end: his second wife filed mental and physical harassment against him, and he made the mistake of making a recommendation to police to cancel a person’s rowdy sheet (criminal record), only to then be spotted driving that person’s registered SUV. All it took was a bit of digging and police uncovered a web of lies going back over a decade, false degrees and certificates and several aliases. Their conclusion was that Teja’s career and pretty much all of his life, for that matter, was a fabrication…

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A 17-year-old teenager from India’s Uttar Pradesh state is allegedly living in fear after being bitten by the same wild snake a whopping eight times in a single month.

Yashraj Mishra, from Rampur village in Basti district, reportedly lives in constant fear after being targeted by a snake for reasons that remain unknown. After learning of his plight, the 17-year-old’s family took him to the village doctor for treatment and also appealed to snake charmers, but nothing seemed to stop the snake. After he was bitten for the third time, the family even shipped the teen to a relative’s home in a neighboring village, but the slithering reptile allegedly tracked him down and bit him again…

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The Covid-19 pandemic is forcing tourism businesses to think outside the box in order to stay afloat. Case in point, a Kerala hotel and spa that turned its pristine swimming pool into a fish farm.

The Aveda Resort and Spa in Kumarakom, Kerala had to shut down operations in March, as part of a nationwide coronavirus lockdown, and hasn’t been able to open since. To make sure that its employees have some activity and that the property generates some income to hopefully pay basic bills so it can survive until tourism opens again, management decided to repurpose a 7.5-million-litre swimming pool as a fish pond.

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In what can only be described as one of the most bizarre divorce pretexts ever, a Muslim woman has asked a Sharia court to end her marriage because her husband because he lover her too much.

The unidentified woman from the Sambhal district of India’s Uttar Pradesh state recently approached the Sambhal Sharia court to ask for a divorce from her husband of just 18 months. Asked to explain her request, the woman said that her spouse loved her too much and never argued with her, which she just found impossible to accept. To make matters “worse”, the woman’s husband also cooked and cleaned for her, and helped with various house chores. She declared herself “fed up” and asked the members of the court to end her marriage.

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An Indian man melted the hearts of millions in his home country after unveiling a life-size and almost lifelike sculpture of his late wife during a house-warming party.

Srinivas Gupta, a businessman from Karnataka, India who lost his wife in a tragic car accident three years ago, wanted his life partner to be physically present at a recent house-warming event that he had a life-size silicone statue of her made by a local artist. Madhavi, Gupta’s late wife, had always wanted to own her own bungalow, so after her death the businessman decided to honor her memory by building one in her honor. A year ago, he commissioned a local sculptor to make an ultra-realistic statue of Madhavi, so she could be with him and their two daughters when the new home was ready.

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A trained software engineer, Sachin Sanghe spends most of his free time sculpting sticks of chalk into beautiful artworks, from portraits of celebrities, to depictions of Hindu gods.

As a high-school student, Sachin Sanghe was  always called to the front of the class to write notes on the blackboard, so it’s no surprise that he formed a special connection to the humble chalk. He started carving sticks of chalk with his geometry tools as a hobby, and as time went by, he got better at it. But then he got into an engineering college, and his art had to take a backseat to his academic responsibilities. However, after finishing school and getting a job, Sachin was free to return to his special hobby again. He did so, and became so good at it that the self-taught artist is now being hailed as one of the world’s best chalk sculptors.

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An Indian software engineer was arrested last week after reportedly hacking his former employer and deleting information in the hopes that he would be rehired.

The IT specialist, identified as one Vikesh Sharma, used to work as a senior software engineer in the company until being fired during the the lockdown due to disagreement over his salary. Only instead of moving on and looking for another job, Sharma allegedly tried to get his old job back in a very unusual way. He managed to hack his former employer’s database and delete thousands of patient details, in the hopes that his former boss would contact him to rectify the situation. That didn’t happen…

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India is one of the most affected countries by the Covid-19 pandemic, and people are turning to spiritual and divine powers in an attempt to protect themselves from the new coronavirus.

Last month, Indian media reported on a group of women from a village in West Bengal who had decided to fight the coronavirus in their own way – by worshiping Corona Mai, or ‘Corona Goddess’. They set up a small shrine on the banks of Chinnamasta pond, near Asansol city, and started singing songs and mantras, burning incense and bringing offerings like fruits, vegetables, ghee, and jaggery. The women said that they planned to worship and pray to the goddess until she takes away the coronavirus. That may take a while…

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An Indian man is so obsessed with photography that he named his three sons after iconic camera brands – Canon, Nikon and Epson – and spent a small fortune on a three-story villa shaped like a giant camera.

You hear the phrase “passionate about photography” a lot among photography enthusiasts, but Ravi Hongal, a 49-year-old professional photographer from Belgaum, India, actually came up with some truly unique ways of showing off his passion for the art. After naming his three sons after some of the most iconic camera brands in the history of photography, Ravi recently spent around $95,000 on an impressive house shaped like a giant vintage camera, complete with a lens-shaped window, flash, and even a giant SD card.

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