I’ve never been to India. And truthfully, I don’t have any great desire to go. It is known as the world’s largest democracy. I know a few people who have traveled there, and they all say that India is a truly fascinating country.
Here’s one thing. If you visit? It’s illegal for foreigners to take Indian currency (rupees) out of India.
Here’s another thing. It is hard to believe that India was once an island and even a part of Antarctica. That was a long time ago — about 50 million years, to give you a ballpark figure.
But today, it is a much different culture than we have here in the United States. And every so often, we hear stories that are weird to us.
Like. The world’s largest family lives together in India. A guy there has 39 wives and 94 children. That’s about 2.4 kids per wife. I guess he’s spreading it around. I wonder if he knows all their names.
Sometimes, those stories really get interesting.
Since we were speaking about families, we all know that relationships between parents and children can be hard at times, including expectations.
Well. An Indian couple took this one step further. Apparently, after six years of marriage, their son and his wife weren’t going to have a kid. And the would-be grandparents wanted a grandchild. So those wannabe grandparents sued their son for $643,000 on the grounds of “mental harassment.”
Not that it matters, but Sanjeev and Sadhana Prasad were the grandparent-less couple. They argued in their lawsuit that they spent $257,000 to raise their son, Shrey Sagar. They also paid for his pilot training in the United States. And, as with many Indian couples, they arranged their marriage and paid for the entire wedding. They did this — not to be good parents — but with the expectation that Sagar and his wife would have a child.
I don’t know how the lawsuit turned out. But it might have been cheaper to adopt a grandkid of their own.
Meanwhile, somewhere else in India. A woman named Maya Murmu’s life was cut short when she was out drawing water in Odisha’s Mayurbhanj district. (Almost all the way to the eastern border of India.)
Anyway, the 70-year-old woman was there getting water when suddenly, a wild elephant came out from some nearby trees and trampled her.
Unfortunately, Maya Murmu died as a result of her injuries. And with that news, her grieving family began to prepare for her funeral.
Several of her friends and family attended the funeral, but someone else showed up too. It was the very same elephant that had killed Murmu.
This time, the elephant brought along a herd that proceeded to rampage Murmu’s funeral. They knocked her from the funeral pyre, tramped her body for a second time, and then tossed it away. When they were done with Murmur, they went running off.
Eventually, the family gathered up the woman’s dead, crumpled body and proceeded with the ceremony. But everyone there was completely shocked by the event.
No one had any idea why this one elephant had it out for Maya Murmu. But I will tell you this. Elephants are smart. And they have good memories.
I don’t really know what to say about these two unrelated stories from India. But as mentioned earlier, I don’t have any interest in going there. And all of this? Well, it sort of sealed the deal.
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“People are strange . . .”
― Jim Morrison
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“Sometimes a situation grows so tangled that words are useless.”
― Patrick Rothfuss, The Wise Man’s Fear
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“Life is made of ever so many partings welded together.”
— Charles Dickens
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The ins and outs of India. Outs.
