Friday, November 16, 2007

India: Inter-Species Marriage Good, Humans Kissing Bad

How crazy is this world?

A man in southern India married a female dog in a traditional Hindu ceremony as an attempt to atone for stoning two other dogs to death — an act he believes cursed him. P. Selvakumar married the sari-draped former stray named Selvi, chosen by family members and then bathed and clothed for the ceremony at a Hindu temple in the southern state of Tamil Nadu.

Selvakumar, 33, told the paper he had been suffering since he stoned two dogs to death and hung their bodies from a tree 15 years ago.

Deeply superstitious people in rural India sometimes organize weddings to dogs and other animals, believing it can ward off certain curses. The paper said the groom and his family then had a feast, while the dog got a bun.
While the Hindus support a man marrying a dog, a public kiss can result in jail time. Remember this story from not too long ago?
Richard Gere was in hot water over the public kiss he gave Indian actress Shilpa Shetty. After Indians protested the kiss, which took place at an HIV-awareness event in New Delhi, an Indian court issued an arrest warrant for Gere. A judge who watched video of the kiss found Gere guilty of violating Indian laws against public obscenity and said the kiss "transgressed all limits of vulgarity."

"There is a very small right-wing conservative party and they are the moral police in India and they do this quite often," said Gere.
This world is effed up.
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2 comments:

michael sean morris said...

If kissing Richard Gere is wrong, I don't want to be right.

naveen said...

in india, people marry animals, and in some cases, things, all the time

it's an excellent example of how marriage is considered a non-sexual union of spirits in some cultures; while in america it may be more of a legality, or like i think of my marriage, a tax break