Yet another “bizarre ritual” from the desh…but to be honest, I’ve never heard of this at all before. Have you? Anyone know anything about this?
Muslims in western India have been observing a bizarre ritual – they’ve been throwing their young children off a tall building to improve their health. The faithful have been observing the ritual at a shrine in Solapur, in western India’s Maharastra, for more than five hundred years. They believe it will make their children strong and say no accidents have ever happened. link
Even the Reuters clip has lot of women in the crowd.
49 · Samir said
Samir, do you mean meet the spartans ?
This is probably the most idiotic thing I have ever come across. Interestingly, there was a game with the same theme.
37 · Abhi said
Like the thinking 😉 Need to work on a slogan for my new t-shirt.
I survived the Indian baby dropping ritual and all I got was ……..
The great Indian baby dropping ritual, if you weren’t there you probably have a pair missing!
My first excitement!
It’s bizarre only to the eyes of bizarre people.
M. Nam
I just hope nobody from the Indian team is down there.
This is a dangerous practice, and the parents are incredibly negligent for continuing to do this.
It is almost as idiotic as riding around with your whole family on a scooter with no helmets.
I have never heard of this strange ritual and I don’t think the Southies have any sort of celebration like this (I am a typical Southie). Enlighten me if this is incorrect.
Great thing no responsible adult at the event soiled themselves because just watching the video clip is very painful. All the adults looked very calm in the video. I personally believe the practice of dropping babies must be banned for the obvious safety reason . The other reason for banning is that it makes Desis look a bit odd in the eyes of the world. Perhaps the baby tossers can substitute Cabbage Patch dolls for the real children. That would be a good compromise for all the Louise Woodwards/Michael Jacksons out there.
I cringed every time a baby was dropped in this clip…seriously..what the heck? I don’t care how much you believe in the religious beliefs of your village–at some point you’ve just got to step back and and say, “Aww hell no”.
Would make for a good Family guy skit though…
this got india the vote of the strangest country…they were competing with japan.
how can one possibly know every absurd ritual that takes place in india. even if there is banned, there will be yet one more pocket of absurdity uncovered somewhere in that vast country. i’m so tired of having to tell friends who watch pbs specials..”no, not everyone in india eats rats.”
61 · db said
I eat rats
I grew up in a small town – Kirloskarwadi in Sangli district in Maharashtra. There is a temple of a local deity “Mayappa” near the place. The deity is much revered in surrounding areas and every year there is a Jatra (a fair) at the place. People used to do the exact same thing there too. I have seen it. Mayappa is a Hindu temple. I have seen this in other parts of Maharashtra too, like in another fair at a place called Jat in Sangli district. The reasoning in the Mayappa temple was that you throw your child into God’s arms (Devachi Jholi) and that is supposed to bless the child and strengthen your faith in God. They also butchered chicken and goats at the temple fairly regularly.
I never thought that I would be seeing this on YouTube and discussing about this on Sepia Mutiny. I haven’t read all the comments above, but I agree with the person who said this:
I would like to add that almost all of these bizzare traditions come from “faith based initiatives” aka “religions” and most of these “nuts” are “God-nuts”. It is time we throw God off the roof.
63 · Sameer said
I agree. Religion is bullshit
This and the snake charmers baby vid will nip in the bud the aspirations of many an aspiring desi au pair. This is what ayah used to do with little sahib when memsahib was at the gymkhana
I’m disgusted. What the hell yo. I would like to contest that religion is the cause of this. Islam eschews all superstition. Unfortuntelay, being stupid isn’t a trait of the religious only, Saif
I’m really puzzled at how deeply embarrassed some of the comments sound, and trying to fix the blame for the existence of baby-dropping on various factors. From a headline writer’s perspective, it’s tough to write something more succinct than “Indian baby-dropping ritual”. It’s just another ritual in the world, like the British habit of cheese rolling or the Northern European practice of wife carrying or the American tradition of the demolition derby or the Southern African custom of being circumcised by a spear. It goes without saying that the practices are not universal even within their countries of origin, and spending time vociferously distancing yourself from the practice by invoking region or religion makes you come across as being insecure.
Damn, I missed out as a baby! No nickelodeon, no falling off buildings. Sad.
I’m not so sure about this. My parents tried dropping me on my head multiple times, but it obviously didn’t fix my problems.
53 · Vivek said
Ha! “Bouncing Babies”! Thanks for that blast from the past. I remember playing that game when I was a kid.
Hmm… I used to call myself cicatrix wen I blogged a couple of years back. U be stealer and who be stole from? 😛