MORE WEIRD STUFF FROM INDIA

Here are two very strange stories from India. The first is funny (I think), the second tragic. From The Times of India. By the way, the frog is from India, rescuing the mouse during a monsoon.

Two minor girls married off to frogs
17 Jan 2009


PUDUCHERRY: In a bizarre ritual, two minor girls, both seven, from the remote Pallipudupet village in Tamil Nadu's Villupuram district were married off to frogs on Friday night. The ceremony, an annual feature during the Pongal (harvest) festival, is conducted "to prevent the outbreak of mysterious diseases in the village''.

The girls, Vigneswari and Masiakanni, dressed up in traditional bridal finery -- gilded sarees and gold jewellery -- married the frog 'princes' in separate, elaborate ceremonies at two different temples in the presence of hundreds of villagers.

Amidst chanting of vedic hymns, the temple priests garlanded the brides and tied the magalsutras on behalf of the frogs pronouncing the two as wives of the amphibians before the sacred fire at the auspicious hour.

The villagers threw themselves into the ceremonies with gusto. While residents living in the western part of the village acted as relatives of the brides and those from the eastern part play-acted as relatives of the grooms. The ceremonies had all the usual elements of a traditional marriage including a sumptuous feast.

However, unlike the fairy tale `Frog Prince', where the ugly toad turns into a handsome prince when the princess kisses it, the Villupuram village belles bid their amphibian grooms goodbye and lead a normal life thereafter. As for the terrified frogs, they are thrown back into the temple ponds after the ceremony.

Earlier the 'relatives' of the brides came in a procession to the grooms' houses in the eastern part of the village to fix the marriage and later went to the temple pond to catch the frogs. The frog princes were tied to long sticks decorated with garlands for the marriage ceremonies.

An elderly woman of the village said the ritual was practised traditionally for several generations to ward off evil spirits and diseases from the village.

Villupuram district collector R Palaniswamy told TOI that he had deputed a team led by the district social welfare officer to visit the village and submit a detailed report. "The district administration proposes to evolve comprehensive schemes to motivate and enlighten the villagers against such evil and ignorant practises," he said. But all these years the strange practice has been going on unchecked.

and then there's this on...

22-yr-old youth rapes 101-yr-old woman
18 Jan 2009

CHANDRAPUR: In an incident that was as shameful as it was repulsive, a 22-year-old youth raped a 101-year-old woman in Salori village under Shegaon police station in Warora tehsil on January 15.

The police have identified the accused as Pundalik Dhok of Salori village. Police sources said that Pundalik, to give vent to his pervert intentions, entered the house of the victim who was his great grandmother’s age, at 11 pm on January 15. The victim was alone when Pundalik overpowered the old woman and fled.

The victim narrated the incident to her son who returned on the following day and accordingly he filed a complaint with the police. The medical examination of the old woman too confirmed of rape, Shegaon police personnel said.

Acting on a complaint filed the victim’s son, cops nabbed Pundalik on Friday evening and was booked under section 376 of IPC. Later on the same evening, Pundalik managed to give cops a slip after he and the victim were taken to the primary health centre for medical examination. Shegaon police told TOI that after the medical examination the accused walked out of small hospital to wash his hands outside the PHC as the accompanying cops waited for him.

On finding that there was no cop present as he washed hands, he fled under the cover of darkness. Additional offence under section 324 has been registered against the accused and have launched a manhunt to nab him.