"It Happens Only In India". This Blog is a Directory of Weird & Odd Indian Things, Weird & Odd Indian Facts, Weird & Odd news stories, Weird & Odd Indian Stuff, Weird & Odd Indian Culture News & Weird People of India. Posts in this Blog are a window to the world about those Weird & Odd Facts about India & about Amazing, Strange, Bizarre, Unusual Interesting Stories that actually happen in India.
Wishing all our readers a very "Happy New Year - 2009". May this Year - 2009 bring joy, happiness & prosperity to all our readers. May God Bless all in this year.
Patna: Every morning a babble of voices breaks the eerie silence of a graveyard as schoolchildren repeat their lessons under an open sky. This strange sight in a Bihar village is something people have got accustomed to for the past eight years.
The Kasai Tola Prathmik Vidyalaya, a government-run primary school in Madhopada, a lower middle class locality in Purnea town, about 350 km from Patna, has been functioning out of a graveyard and the authorities have so far not bothered to relocate it. Read more.................Where children read lessons sitting in a graveyard
Jalesar (Uttar Pradesh): Verses from the Hindu epic Ramayana can be heard as soon as one alights at the main bus stop in this small Uttar Pradesh town. They can be heard from loudspeakers in various neighbourhoods. The chanting emanates from an ancient temple and has been going on non-stop for nine months.The continuous recitation is part of an “Akhand Ramayana Path”, or a 24-hour reading of the epic, but residents of Jalesar in Etah district, around 350 km from state capital Lucknow, hope to continue it for another three months to complete a year. Read more...............................Reciting Ramayana non-stop for nine months…and continuing
Now it is an open secret that hoards of Indian black money is stashed away in Swiss banks. Whether it is corrupt politicians of India or all such businessmen or other such people who earn money by wrong means. Here below is a paragraph from TOI report which says about the black money of Hassan Ali Khan but also about the approximate sum of black money hoarded in Swiss banks by all such Indians.
"Pune businessman and racehorse owner Hassan Ali Khan was raided by the Income Tax department, Mumbai in 2007 and found to be operating a bank account in UBS, Zurich with a sum of over $8 billion. That raid spawned a host of investigations against Khan. The documents of the account were recovered from his Pune house. Estimates of the total Indian money stashed away in Swiss banks is around $1,410 billion."
Oh!!!! God, the sum stashed away in Swiss banks by these corrupt people is around $1,410 billion. In Indian Rupees it comes out to be Rs. 67,68,000 Crores or Rs. 67,680,000 Millions. So now you can see how much Indian Taxpayers money is stashed away in Swiss banks only. It is only a fraction of the total money stashed away in all different banks of the world.
KOLKATA: Sukumar Das, the inspector-in-charge of Khardah police station, got the shock of his life when he picked up the phone on Monday afternoon. The agitated voice at the other end pleaded with the inspector to rush to his aid as soon as possible. Was it a thief? A local tough? A fraudster? No. Ratan Das, the caller, was complaining of ghost attacks in his house.
Das said strange things were happening in his house at Midland Place in the Rahara area over the past fortnight. Often, family members saw household items toppling out of shelves. "One day, the door of our refrigerator suddenly developed cracks and fell off. We also saw flower vases trembling and falling on the floor without anyone even getting near them," complained Das, a clerk at Barrackpore court. Read more.......................Ghost attacks in Khardah house
KOCHI: Giving a go-by to the craze for gold and diamond jewellery, a newly married couple here exchanged wedding vows wearing ornaments crafted from coconut shells.
Dressed in 'Chatta' and 'Mundu', the traditional attire of Roman catholics in Kerala, Elizabeth Varghese got married to Antony Chandy at the St Basilica church on Tuesday, adorned with ornaments made from coconut shells. Read more...............................Bride exchanges wedding vows wearing coconut shell ornaments
Kharar (Punjab): Sital Singh Bagi's life sounds like a script of a Bollywood masala flick.
The 67-year-old ex-IAF man has been fighting a nine-year legal battle to prove that he is the "real" Sital Singh Bagi and not "dead" as his family had got him declared after he fled home allegedly to escape terrorists and did not surface for a decade. Read more........................"Dead" ex-IAF man in nine-year legal battle to say he is alive
Roll up your sleeves and let the abuses fly. Don't worry, you won't receive a sound thrashing, but in fact if your choice of expletives are entertaining enough and inoffensive, you might just be awarded in this unique competition in Karnataka.
Titled 'Hubli Vichitra Baigula' (Hubli Unusual Abuse), the competition is organised by the trustees of the Dakshina Vaishnodevi Temple in Hubli, 370 km from here, where participants have to hurl abuses to win prizes. The prize, a garland of flowers. Read more......................Abuse without offending, win a prize
AHMEDABAD: In an age where everybody seems to be wanting to marry slim, tall, fair, rich and beautiful girls, a 29-year-old city youth's matrimonial advertisement reads something like this - `Wanted: A girl with a beautiful mind. Should be HIV +ve'. Read more..................Jilted once, divorcee wants HIV+bride
NEW DELHI – Boxing Day isn't a day to put up your dukes and get into the ring, Indian boxing officials said Friday.
Seeking to allay apparent confusion among boxing buffs, the Indian Boxing Federation (IBF) said the day after Christmas was named for the practice of leaving gifts for the underprivileged in poor boxes in churches, not "the sweet science. Read more.......................Don't get punchy on Boxing Day
LUCKNOW: A mother of two young children has gone into hiding after her dissolute husband wagered her in a card game and lost. Read full story....................Kalyug ki Draupadi goes into hiding
BHUBANESWAR: It did not need Aamir Khan with electric shaver in hand to promote film ‘Ghajini’ in the Millennium city. It needed only a handful of his die-hard fans to fan such hysteria over his latest release, an intense graphic revenge drama, that would linger in the minds for some time.
Every three minutes a woman becomes victim of a crime somewhere in India . The highest number become targets of their husbands and in-laws.
A total of 185,312 incidents of crime against women were reported in the country during 2007 as compared to 164,765 during 2006, an increase of 12.5 percent. Read more............................In India, a woman becomes a crime victim every three minutes
NEW DELHI: A 32-year-old woman miraculously survived a fall from the fifth floor terrace of a building, a height of about 70 feet, in Neb Sarai, south Delhi, on Thursday.
An Indian bakery has attempted to break a world record by making a cake 32ft (9.75m) tall to celebrate Christmas.
The cake was made by a bakery in the city of Kochi (Cochin) in the southern Indian state of Kerala, and was supported by iron pipes and wooden planks in an effort to make it stable.
Organiser Jayachandran Pillai told reporters that the cake took 15 days to make and weighed over 550kg. Read more.......................................India seeks tallest cake record
AURAIYA (UP): An executive engineer of Public Works Department (PWD) was allegedly lynched by some unidentified persons, believed to be supporters of the local BSP MLA here, about 100 kms from Kanpur.
According to a report lodged with the police by Shashi Gupta, wife of deceased M K Gupta, two unidentified men entered their house in Gail Vihar in Dibiyapur forcibly on Tuesday night and started beating her husband badly. Read more.............................Engineer killed for 'not funding' Maya's birthday party
RAIPUR, India - Indian police began a probe on Monday into reports that villagers in a tribal area of central India beat 50 women with sticks after accusing them of witchcraft, and cut off their hair.
The villagers acted on the advice of a local spiritual man who said the assault would protect them from evil spirits, in a forest in a poor district of Chhattisgarh state, 400km (250 miles) from the capital Raipur, police said. Police probe assault on 50 "witches"
Raipur: A man deserted his wife in Chhattisgarh when she gave birth to a girl despite having undergone a tubectomy in order not to have any more children, an official said Saturday.
Twenty eight-year-old Sona Kashyap was thrown out of the house by her husband Deepak early this month after she delivered a girl despite having undergone an operation Dec 5 last year at a government health camp.
Sona, a resident of Kalipur locality from state's southern town Jagdalpur, district headquarters of the Bastar region, underwent the operation against the wishes of her husband. Read more........................................Man deserts wife for giving birth to daughter
RANCHI: Mahendra Singh Dhoni is no god but for his legions of fans, the Team India skipper is no less either and to pay tribute to their hero, his admirers are planning to build a temple here.
“We the Dhoni Fans’ Club are raising funds among ourselves to build a temple in our idol’s name. There are also many well-wishers supporting us,” club President Jitendra Kumar Singh said. Read more...................Coming soon: A Dhoni temple in Ranchi
JAIPUR: "It took three days to teach her how to sign," says Kirorilal Meena about his wife Golma Devi. But the fact that the woman had to practice putting her signature on her oath letter hasn't come in the way of her becoming a minister in Ashok Gehlot's congress government, thanks to caste politics of please and appease. Read more...............................Rajasthan minister just learnt to sign
While many star struck men and boys visited salons to get the perfect 'Ghajini' cut, two lucky fans got their hair buzzed by Bollywood superstar Aamir Khan himself at a market in the capital. 'Quite a lot of people are getting this 'Ghajini' haircut from various places, so I thought I will give the cut to some of my fans myself. I felt very light when I got it done - there was no need to comb my hair after the bath,' said Aamir, who gave hair cut at Bengali Market in central Delhi as part of his promotional activities for 'Ghajini'.
AHMEDABAD: Dronacharya may have asked for Eklavya's thumb as gurudakshina but two new-age teachers in Ahmedabad asked their students to appear in an examination on their behalf. All four have been arrested by the police for cheating! Read more...................Students caught helping teachers in exam
PANAJI: 25-year-old Ali Khan, a Bangladeshi national has been arrested for overstaying, who is virtually living at the foreigner’s registration office (FRO) in Panaji in India. With no place to go and awaiting permission from the ministry of external affairs, Khan can’t be sent to jail as he has already served the seven-month term for overstaying without valid documents. The law does not permit one to be punished for the same offence twice. Read more.....................B'desh man makes police station home
Here is a dream come true. A house on a Mango tree. Conceived and designed by a Civil Engineer Mr. K. P. Singh from UDAIPUR (Rajasthan - India). Mr. K.P.Singh and his family is living in the house since 2000.
SHILLONG: "I'm a thief by profession. I only wanted your money, I have no use of your documents. You must be worried about the documents, so I am returning those. Hope you will forgive me - a well-wisher". Read more...............................A pickpocket who keeps money, returns papers
Students from a leading private school in the industrial city of Ludhiana in Punjab have created a record of sorts by making a sandwich weighing 4,035 kg.
The ingredients included nearly 2,500 kg of Indian breads, 1,400 kg of vegetables, 100 kg of 'paneer' (cottage cheese), 500 kg of pasta, 35 kg ketchup and 25 kg of cream.The completed sandwich weighed 4,035 kg. Read more.......................................Yummy: Ludhiana school students make 4,035-kg sandwich
KOLKATA: Ever heard of proxy in jail? But that is exactly what has happened with a 35-year-old man, who has been behind bars for more than four months because he is the namesake of an accused in amurder case. Read more.......................................Accused flees, namesake in jail
BANGALORE: The lure of a hidden ‘treasure’ in an abandoned well in the empty fields of Arkavathy Layout made a bangle trader kill five persons on Monday night. When he realized the treasure was a hoax, he committed suicide. The victims included his wife and two children. Read more..................................................For treasure, man wipes out family, kills self
Rajo Devi, 70, who married 50 years ago gave birth to a baby girl on November 28 after receiving fertility treatment.
Her doctor Anurag Bishnoi, from the Hisar fertility centre in Haryana province 80 miles north of New Delhi, said both the mother and baby girl, who weighed a little over 3lbs, were in good health. Read more..........................................Indian woman has first child at age of 70
MUZAFFARNAGAR: The demand for dowry spelled trouble for two grooms, both brothers, and their family members, who were held captive for several hours UP panchayat penalises 'greedy' grooms by angry villagers and forced to pay a "penalty" of Rs five lakh by a community panchayat. Read more................UP panchayat penalises 'greedy' grooms
LUCKNOW: A man along with his wife and mother-in-law torched his mother while performing a tantra exercise at his house in Rampur district. The accused were arrested by the police on Thursday after the incident came to light. Read more................................Son torches mother as part of ritual
Former BSF constable Pijush Kanti Bhattacharya has been living with a militant’s bullet in his body for over a decade but it is the pain of being a forgotten soldier that hurts the most.
Justice S.P. Talukdar of Calcutta High Court eased some of that pain on Thursday when he gave the director-general of the BSF two weeks to ensure that Pijush got everything that a soldier injured in the line of duty was entitled to.
Critically wounded in an encounter with extremists in Manipur in 1997, Pijush has been surviving on a monthly pension of Rs 1,913, far less than what he had been promised.
“I wrote to the director-general in July 2006 and waited a year for a reply but he didn’t bother sending one. I have faith in the judiciary but I will believe that justice has been done only after receiving my dues,” the former constable told Metro from his home in Adi Kasempur village, Barasat. He lives there with his 72-year-old mother, wife and teenaged son. Read more........................................Soldier with bullet in body denied dues
The Haryana's "missing" deputy chief minister, Chander Mohan, 43, has resurfaced in Jaipur to confess, over television from hiding that he married a second time, and to do that changed his religion. Chander has two children from his first wife. Son of former chief minister of Haryana Bhajan Lal, Mohan was sacked from the state Cabinet following his prolonged absence from work. He was missing since Diwali, nobody in his office or home had any clue of his whereabouts. Read more..........................Haryana deputy CM adopts Islam to marry twice, sacked
Lucknow: A Dalit teenager was beaten to death in an Uttar Pradesh village after he allegedly stole sugarcane from a field, police said Wednesday. Read more....................Dalit boy killed for stealing sugarcane
New Delhi: Fourteen people commit suicide every hour in India due to various reasons, ranging from failure in relationships, bankruptcy, illness and social disrepute. Read more.........................14 people commit suicide every hour in India
NEW DELHI: Sitting cross-legged on the uneven floor of their bedroom in Dhobi Gali of old Sabzi Mandi in north Delhi is a coy, newly-wed couple. She is chopping vegetables while he carefully covers her face with a dupatta. Read more................And she became he to marry her
JAIPUR: She was punished for her son’s love affair. A woman of Bangara village under Binjharpur police limits was allegedly beaten up mercilessly and paraded naked by the villagers after her son eloped with their neighbour’s daughter. Read more.................Son elopes, woman paraded naked
CHENNAI: It was a glorious moment for Vedam and Selvamary as they hugged their new-born son. In the city a 59-year-old Selvamary delivered a baby boy weighing 2.9 kilograms at a private hospital in the city on Tuesday. Her beaming husband, Vedam, 61, was by her side to witness the miracle. Read more..................59-yr-old gives birth to a baby
New Delhi It may sound curious but a latest government survey shows 209 men were kidnapped in the country last year to force them into wedlock. This figure includes three men above the age of 50 years and two below the age of ten years. Read more...............209 men kidnapped for marriage in India
Moga (Punjab): A quarrel over a pair of shoes between two teenaged friends left one of them dead in this Punjab town Monday, the police said.
The victim, Gurlagan Singh, 16, was allegedly shot in his face from point blank range with a .32 bore revolver by his friend Gurvinder Singh in a village here, 200 km from Chandigarh. Read more......................Fight over shoes leaves teenager dead in Punjab
Onions, garlic and chillies don't just spice up your favourite dish, they can also keep pests at bay. And now five school students in Uttar Pradesh have used them to prepare an eco-friendly pesticide. The biopesticide has been prepared by students of GRM Senior Secondary School in Bareilly. It is one of the few projects from the state to be selected for the National Children's Science Congress (NCSC) to be held at Dimapur, Nagaland, from Dec 27 to 31. Read more........................................School students unleash onion-garlic-chilli pesticide!
