Indian Village Plants 111 Trees Every Time a Girl Child is Born
While a vast majority of Indians continue to prefer sons, a small village in the Indian state of Rajasthan has its own unique tradition of celebrating their daughters. Since 2006, the residents of Piplantri village, in southern Rajasthan’s Rajsamand district, have been planting a whopping 111 trees to celebrate the birth of a girl! Given […]
Indians Take Exam Cheating to New Heights by Scaling School Walls to Help Friends and Relatives
Cheating at exams is an age-old phenomenon, but the practice literally scaled new heights last week in the eastern Indian state of Bihar. News reports showed how parents and relatives of 10th-grade students climbing the walls of a school building to hand cheat sheets to the students taking their year-end exams inside! Photographs and videos […]
7-Year-Old Wonder Kid Nicknamed “Google” Knows Pretty Much Everything
Seven-year-old Kautilya Pandit is what you would call a walking, talking encyclopedia, with the capacity to absorb information ranging from geography to biology and current affairs. He also dabbles in economic statistics, politics and pretty much any other subject you can think of. Within three months, the little kid managed to memorize information about 213 countries, […]
Shani Shingnapur – India’s Village without Doors
Believe it or not, there’s a village in India where none of the 300-odd buildings – homes, educational institutions, and even banks – have doors. Cash is stored in unlocked containers, as are valuable pieces of gold jewellery. Even most of the public toilets in Shani Shingnapur village square have no doors. “For reasons of […]
Indian Man Finally Gets Fired after Skipping Work for 24 Years
An employee of India’s Central Public Works Department (CPWD) has been found guilty of ‘wilful absence of duty’ – believe it or not – for the past 24 years! Assistant executive engineer A.K. Verma went off sick from work one morning in 1990, and he simply never returned. “He went on seeking extension of leave, […]
This Guy Has Been Driving Backwards for the Last 11 Years
Indian taxi driver Harpreet Dev is well-known in his hometown of Bhatinda, Punjab, for his amazing reverse driving skills. The 30-year-old has been driving his cab in reverse for the past 11 years. Harpreet is so used to it now that he says he doesn’t trust himself to drive forwards anymore! He even has a special […]
Hundreds of Indians Fast to Death Every Year in Ancient Santhara Ritual
Fasting is a common religious practice in several cultures across the world, but few are as hardcore as ‘Santhara’. The exacting ritual is a part of Jainism, one of the oldest religions in the world, and it involves participants making an oath to stop eating until they literally die of starvation. According to the Jains, […]
Indian Hindu Leaders Launch Beauty Products Made with Cow Dung
The Visha Hindu Parishad (VHP), a right-wing non-governmental organization in India, has recently launched a line of beauty products containing two very special ingredients – cow dung and gau mutra. “The use of gau mutra in medicines and beauty products will help farmers and prevent them from selling cows. Ayurveda talks about use of cow […]
8-Year-Old ‘Human Calendar’ Can Accurately Calculate Any Day-Date Configuration until 2068
At first glance, Aryan Parab looks like a regular eight-year-old kid; he likes going to school and playing football with his mates. But ask him a few questions about future dates and you’ll realize that he’s actually a mathematical genius with superhuman computational skills. The boy can work out the day on which any date […]
Indian Temple Has 600 Barbers Shaving 20,000 Heads a Day
The Seshachalam Hills in Southern India are home to one of the nation’s most popular pilgrimage destinations – the town of Tirumala. Each year, millions of pilgrims display their devotion for the presiding deity, Sri Venkateswara, in the most bizarre fashion – by tonsuring their heads! There’s actually a rather interesting story behind the unusual practice – […]
The Most Remarkable Newspaper in the World Is Written by a Bunch of Indian Street Kids
‘Balaknama’, or ‘Children’s Voice’, is a quarterly publication that’s completely written and run by children living in New Delhi’s slums. With a readership in the tens of thousands, the newspaper is being hailed as one of the most impressive in the world. Backed by the Indian non-profit organisation Chetna, Balaknama publishes contributions from a federation […]
World’s Largest Turban – Indian Man Wears Headgear That Weighs 100 Pounds
Avtar Singh Mauni, from Punjab, India, is the proud owner of the world’s largest turban. The devout Sikh’s enormous headgear consists of no less than 645 meters of fabric, weighing 100 pounds. It took him a staggering 16 years to assemble, and he needs to spend six hours just to put it on. And you […]
Indian Priests Smash Coconuts on Devotees’ Heads in Bizarre Good Luck Ritual
Every year, thousands of devotees travel to a remote village in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu to put themselves through a gruesome ritual that they hope will bring them good health and success. Believe it or not, men, women and even children willingly permit priests to smash hard coconuts on their skulls! Breaking […]
The Amazing Story of the Suicidal Man Who Became India’s Famous Monkey Climber
Several years ago, young Jyothi Raj was a depressed man – he chose a rock and decided to climb it before plunging to his death. The huge rock presented a dilemma – there was no easy route to reach the top. But Jyothi Raj managed to scale it anyway, by observing and emulating the monkeys […]
What Is It with Wealthy Indian Men and Solid Gold Shirts?
When we wrote about Datta Phuge, an Indian businessman who owns a 3.2-kilogram solid gold shirt, we thought that his was a unique story. But it turns out there are other rich men in India obsessed with gold – like Pankaj Parakh, a businessman and local politician who celebrated his 45th birthday by gifting himself […]