1. Parents induce labor to deliver babies at auspicious times.
Superstitious parents in India are known to have c-sections, or to plan ahead and induce labor at times that are considered auspicious. Some Hindus believe that being born at a certain time will better a child’s future.
2.People put up photos of deities on building walls to prevent public urination.
Nearly 50 percent of India’s population is said not to have a toilet at home and public defecation is a huge problem. People put up photos of Indian deities to prevent people from urinating on their walls.
3.Elephants come back for revenge.
After a train hit and killed an elephant in India, the herd stayed on to mourn. An elephant-chasing squad was brought in from Bengal but the elephants eventually returned and rampaged through through the village, damaging 10 homes.
4.Families hire pre-wedding detectives to snoop on prospective brides and grooms.
Indians are hiring private investigators to run a background check on prospective brides and grooms ahead of the wedding. The business is booming for India’s pre-matrimonial detective agencies.
5.Banks have no locks on their front door.
In Shani Shingnapur, a famous temple town in Maharashtra residents have houses without doors and locks because they believe it is protected by Lord Shani. The town got its first commercial bank, UCO Bank, in 2011 and it has no lock on its front door.
6. Millions of tons of grain rot in storage even as thousands die of malnutrition
Some 6 million tons of India’s grains, worth $1.5 billion, could rot, while 43 percent of children under the age of five are underweight and 3,000 children reportedly die from malnutrition-related illnesses every day.
7.Men spend thousands of dollars on gold shirts.
Indian business man Datta Phuge spent $230,888 on a gold shirt. He says “I am not the best looking man in the world but surely no woman could fail to be dazzled by this shirt”.
8.Robbers try to steal truckloads of onions.
Indian police prevented thieves from taking off with a truck full of onions. The thieves decided to target onions because the price of the vegetable had surged.
9.There are special ‘nuisance detectors’ to fine those spitting in public.
India employs special ‘spit inspectors’ and ‘nuisance detectors’ to fine people that are caught spitting, urinating or otherwise littering in public. Spitting in a public place in the absence of a spittoon is “banned under a 2006 Mumbai bylaw”
10.People swallow live fish to cure asthma.
The Goud family in India claims to have a homemade remedy for asthma that involves swallowing a live fish that is filled with a tightly guarded medicine.
11.Termites feast on the money.
Termites ate through 10 million rupees ($222,000) at the Fathepur branch of State Bank of India last year.
12.People are arrested for liking a Facebook status.
A woman named Shaheen Dhada posted a status on Facebook questioning a Mumbai “bandh,” or shutdown, after the death of politician Bal Thackeray, known for using various forms of intimidation to achieve political ends. Her friend Renu Srinivasan liked the post. Both were arrested for their actions and the incident sparked a furor about the lack of freedom of speech in India.
