A Pune man has been getting a lot of attention on Indian social media after photos of him wearing a solid gold face mask as protection against the coronavirus started doing the rounds online.

Shankar Kurade, a resident of Pimpri-Chinchwad, on the outskirts of Pune City, has been fond of gold for as long as he can remember. He never leaves the house without gold chains on his neck and large rings on most of his fingers, so when people started wearing medical face masks to prevent getting infected with the novel coronavirus, Shankar knew he had to find a way to make himself stand out. Then he saw a news report about a man who had commissioned a silver face mask, and realized that he could do the same, only he would get a mask out of his favorite precious metal.

Read More »

A 40-year-old Indian man tragically lost his life recently after his visiting family allegedly unplugged the ventilator keeping him alive in order to plug in an air cooler, after the hospital turned on air conditioning to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

The unnamed man was suspected to be suffering from COVID-19 and admitted to the ICU at Maharao Bhim Singh (MBS) Hospital in Rajasthan, India, on June 13. Two days later, after another patient there tested positive for the virus, he was moved to an isolation ward as a safety precaution. That same day, the man’s family came to visit, and because it was extremely hot in the Kota district of Rajasthan (41 degrees Celsius), they brought an electrical air cooler. Under normal circumstances, the hospital’s air conditioning would have made the air cooler redundant, but because of the Covid-19 threat, the air conditioning system had been turned off to stop the spread of the virus.

Read More »

A financially-burdened businessman from Delhi, India who wanted to end his own life, but was too scared to do it himself hired four hitmen to kill him so his family could receive a considerable insurance policy.

40-year-old Gaurav Bansal supported his family by operating a ration shop, but because of he Covid-19 lockdown, he was under immense financial burden. The poor state of his business had taken a toll on the man’s mental state, and he was plunged in a deep depression. Unable to see hope at the end of the tunnel, Bansal took out a personal loan of RS 6 lakh ($7,900) and planned to have himself murdered. He originally intended to end his own life, but couldn’t muster the courage to do it, so he contacted four other people to do it, for a price.

Read More »

Lonar Lake, also known as Lonar crater, which formed after a meteor hit the Earth some 50,000 years ago, baffled experts in India after changing hues literally overnight.

Located around 500 km from Mumbai, in India’s Maharashtra state,  the Lonar lake has long fascinated scientists with its seasonal change in color. This natural phenomenon has been attributed to the salinity of the water and the presence of algae, but the change has never been as sudden or as glaring as this year. Plus, while the water of Lonar lake usually turned a reddish hue, this year it turned pink, baffling scientists and locals alike.

Read More »

A self-proclaimed holy man who claimed to be able to miraculously cure people all of their ailments, including Covid-19, by simply kissing their hands, recently died of Covid-19.

The man, known only as Aslam, told followers in Ratlam, India’s Madhya Pradesh state, that his “kiss-cure” was full proof and would cure them of all ailments. Unfortunately, Aslam’s wonder cure didn’t seem to work so well on himself, as on June 3 he was diagnosed with Covid-19, and sadly succumbed to the diseases the very next day. As soon as the news of his demise spread through the community, his followers started coming forward, and as it turns out, instead of curing people of coronavirus infection, his “special” kisses only helped the virus spread.

Read More »

An Indian entrepreneur has comes up with an ingenious and ultra expensive way to reunite pet owners with the pets they had to leave behind in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic – an all-pet charter plane to fly the animals back to their owners.

Deepika Singh, a young entrepreneur and cyber security researcher in Mumbai, came up with the idea of an all-pet chartered plane when she was arranging a jet to fly in some relatives from Delhi. Some of them wanted to travel with their pets, but the others refused, so she ended up having to look for another plane for them. She realized that she couldn’t have been the only one to experience this issue, so she devised a plan to reunite pets abandoned during the national lockdown with their owners, without cramming them in cargo shipments.

Read More »

Last week authorities in India announced the capture of a suspicious pigeon believed to be a spy from neighboring Pakistan. Now the bird’s owner is demanding that his bird be set free…

The alleged spy was captured on Sunday by villagers in the disputed region of Kashmir, between India and Pakistan. The pigeon caught the people’s attention right away, because of its unusual pink color and a ring with a strange code around one of its legs. They immediately called the regional police, who detained the bird on charges of spying while they tried to decipher the code on its ring. Now a Pakistani villager has come out to dispute the charges, saying that the pigeon was his and the ring around its leg isn’t an elaborate code, but his phone number, in case something happened to the bird.

Read More »

Indian media recently reported the strange case of a man who allegedly filed a complaint against Google Maps for causing him serious marital problems.

R Chandrasekhar, a 49-year-old married man from India’s Mayiladuthurai district, claims he won’t stop short of taking tech giant Alphabet to court for ruining his relationship with his wife. The man basically blames Google Maps, particularly the app’s “Your Timeline” feature for making his wife question him about all the places he allegedly visits every time he goes out. Chandrasekhar claims that Google’s app routinely displays places he has never visited, and he has trouble explaining it to his wife.

Read More »

Photos of chicken eggs with a dark green yolk have been doing the rounds on social media these days, puzzling both veterinary experts and the general public.

Originally thought to be the result of digital image editing, the viral photos were eventually traced back to Ak Shihabudheen, a chicken farmer from Malappuram, who confirmed that some of his poultry do in fact lay eggs with green egg yolks. To prove his claims, the young farmer even posted a video of himself cracking open an egg and revealing the dark green yolk. He recently told reporters that journalists and veterinarians from all over India have contacted him about his strange eggs in recent days, but he declares himself just as puzzled as everyone else.

Read More »

An Indian mother got the shock of a lifetime this week when she sent her son out to get groceries and he came back with a woman he claimed was his wife.

The unnamed woman from Uttar Pradesh’s Ghaziabad city told India’s ANI news agency that she had sent her son out to buy groceries, but instead he came back with a strange woman he said was his wife. The teary-eyed woman said the shock was too much for her and she was unable to accept their union.

Read More »

A 24-year-old Indian man was recently hospitalized after he allegedly cut off his tongue as an offering to the Hindu goddess Kali Mata, to stop the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.

From putting quarantine offenders in haunted houses to people locking spouses in the bathroom, we’ve seen people do some pretty extreme things to stop the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic, but Vivek Sharma, a young stone sculptor working in Suigam, India’s Gujarat state, takes the cake. Frustrated about not being able to return to his home town in Madhya Pradesh, because of nationwide lockdowns, Sharma reportedly chopped off his own tongue at a temple, as an offering to Hindu goddess Kali Mata, to stop the spread of the virus. So far his sacrifice has proven to be in vain…

Read More »

You’ve probably seen people hiding in the bushes and wearing all kinds of silly disguises in order to go outside without being stopped by police, but now you can add faking death to the list of things people have resorted to in order to circumvent the coronavirus lockdown.

Just like Italy, India imposed nationwide lockdown from last Wednesday to fight the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, which left many citizens stranded hundreds of kilometers away from home, with no way to return. That was the case of Hakim Din, a 70-year-old villager from Poonch, in India’s disputed Kashmir region. He was being treated for a minor head injury at a hospital in Jammu, a few hundred kilometers away from home, when the lockdown was enforced, and he started looking for ways to get back. When an ambulance driver suggested that he play dead in order to get past the checkpoints, he jumped at the opportunity.

Read More »

The Indian city of Bangalore is home to one of the most lavish, over-the-top luxury mansions in the world – a replica of the White House built atop a skyscraper.

Vijay Mallya, the chairman of United Breweries Group, has always been one of India’s most flamboyant tycoons, but in 2010, when he announced plans to have a mansion modelled after the White House built atop a luxury skyscraper in Bangalore, people thought it was too much, even for him. He didn’t let that deter him from building his dream home, and by 2016, his mansion atop Kingfisher Tower in the heart of Bangalore City was taking shape. Unfortunately, by that time his financial woes were the talk of India, and it wasn’t long before he fled the country for the UK, leaving his dream home unfinished.

Read More »

An Indian man was recently arrested after bringing home a human hand that he had allegedly taken from a crematorium and asking his wife to cook it for dinner.

The disturbing episode unfolded last week in Tikkopur village, India’s Uttar Pradesh and sent shock waves through the entire area. The accused, known only as 32-year-old man named Sanjay, reportedly brought home a human hand and casually handed (pun intended) it to his wife to cook for dinner. The horrified woman reportedly lost consciousness and fell to the ground, only to wake up to an even more macabre sight – her husband getting ready to cook the human appendage himself. All she could do was run out of the house, lock her husband inside and call the police.

Read More »

Indian doctors recently reported the curious case of a young woman who underwent a double hand transplant almost three years ago and whose hands have changed color to match her skin tone.

21-year-old Shreya Siddanagowder lost both her hands in a freak road accident in 2016, when travelling from her hometown in Pune to her college in Karnataka. Doctors had no choice but to amputate both her hand and forearms, and she needed about a year to recover. As soon as she did, she visited the Amrita Institute to register for a double hand transplant, and doctors there miraculously managed to find a donor for her on that same day, August 9, 2017. There were almost 200 other people on the waiting list, some from foreign countries like Afghanistan or Bangladesh, but she was lucky enough to be compatible with the donor. Doctors called her at the hotel after her visit, and the transplant was carried out that same day.

Read More »