Vrindavan – Where India’s Widows Go to Die
Superstitious beliefs are generally perceived in light humor, like when a black cat crosses your path, or you look into a broken mirror. But what about the ones that could cause several women to live in poverty and destitution for the rest of their lives? Unfortunately, that’s the ugly side of superstition and it does […]
India’s Fascinating Fortune-Telling Robots
Indians have long since been passionate about predicting the future. Horoscopes are created with the help of an astrologer on the very day a child is born and these documents are consulted from time to time during major milestones of a person’s life. Especially when a match is made as a part of an arranged […]
Maramadi – The Famous Bull Race of Kerala
The most famous traditional game involving bulls is Spanish bullfighting, but the people of Kerala, India, have come up with a way celebration that doesn’t involve torturing and killing poor animals. It’s called Maramadi, and it’s held every year, in the post-harvest season. Maramadi is essentially a bull racing event, only instead of a track, it takes […]
Amazing Indian Girl Is Friends with Six King Cobras
India has long been known as the land of the snake charmers. But here’s something very unusual. An 8-year-old Indian girl who plays all day not with other girls, but with her pet King Cobras. Kajol Khan lives in the village of Ghatampur in Uttar Pradesh, with her parents, six sisters, two brothers and six […]
Human Spit Could Cause Indian Bridge to Collapse
Howrah Bridge, located in Kolkata, India, is a cantilever bridge that spans over Hooghly River. Built during the British rule, in 1943, it is one of the most famous symbols of Kolkata. The nearly 70-year-old bridge however, is in danger of collapsing, not from age, but from human saliva. It is common to find many […]
Designer Creates Shirt That’s More Expensive Than a Car
The Royals of ancient times wore clothes that were studded with precious stones and metals. Now you can too, if you are ready to pay an arm and a leg, that is. Or just five million rupees ($97,500). This pricey shirt was created by an Indian designer, Amitabh Chandel. A descendant of a royal family […]
Mauth Ka Kuan – India’s Well of Death
Circus shows have been getting censored, simplified and overall less exciting just about everywhere. Not in India though, that’s the place where the infamous phrase “death defying stunt” lives on through Mauth Ka Kuan, or the Well of Death. Though originally performed all over the world, riding a bike on a vertical wall can now […]
Mata Amritanandamayi Devi – India’s Hugging Saint
Mata Amritanandamayi Devi is a spiritual leader of a different kind. She doesn’t preach, she doesn’t ride around in a massive bullet proof Mercedes, she doesn’t sit atop a mountain and she’s really ruining the business for everybody else as she allows commoners to touch her. In fact, Mata Amritanandamayi Devi is such a spiritual person […]
Fan Turns His Home into Altar for Bollywood Star
Shah Rukh Khan is one of the most popular actors in the world, but no one’s a bigger fan of the Bollywood actor than Vishal Singh, a man who has turned his home into an altar to the movie star. The 38-year-old businessman who runs a homeopathic medicine business in Lucknow, India says there’s nothing he wouldn’t […]
India’s Richest Man Won’t Move into Billion-Dollar Home for Fear of Curse
The 27-storey, billion-dollar tower home in Mumbai, called Antilia, was completed a year ago but India’s richest man, Mukesh Ambani, and his family refuse to move in for fear of bad-luck curse. Dubbed the most expensive home in the world, Antilia has been dominating the Mumbai skyline ever since it was completed last October, but […]
Vampire Husband Drank Wife’s Blood for the Last Three Years
Deepa Ahirwar, a 22-year-old woman from India’s Madhya Pradesh state, has recently accused her husband of drinking her blood on a regular basis, for the last three years. Although it sounds like the story of a cheap vampire movie, young Deepa swears she’s telling the truth and even bears the scars to prove it. She […]
Indians Swallow Raw Fish to Cure Asthma
India is known for the wide variety of folk remedies for various ailments, and one of the most popular right now is the raw-fish-swallowing therapy practiced by the Goud family, in Hyderabad. Asthma is one of the most serious respiratory conditions a person can have, and since conventional medicine doesn’t offer a permanent cure, many […]
India’s Ram Ram Bank Gives Whole New Meaning to Banking
It has no guards, no locks, offers no interest or credit schemes, and doesn’t event deal in money. Still, India’s unusual Ram Ram Bank, in New Delhi, serves over 5,000 happy customers, with more signing up every day. Ram Ram Bank was established 25 years ago, by Tewari, a retired school teacher from Sitapur, who […]
This Is What I Call a Smoking Car
In celebration of the World Anti-Tobacco Day, campaigners in Mumbai, India, have created an impressive life-size car model from 200,000 cigarettes. The smokable installation was placed on display in a Mumbai shopping mall, where it attracted the attention of everyone who passed by. But it was the message in the background that really caught my […]
Indian Sadhu Has Kept His Right Hand Up for the Last 38 Years
Sadhu Amar Bharati is an Indian holy man who claims he has kept his right hand raised in the air since 1973. Now, 38 years later, his hand is just a useless piece of skin and bone, but has become a symbol for Shiva worshipers around India. Until 1970, Amar Bharati was an average middle-class […]