Only in India ...

With apologies to any educated Indians ... I remember at one point I had a 'head to head' with PBK Andrey over his Brahma-Kumari and Murli fueled obssession with the purity and superiority of Mata India.

Just as I have counter the Brahma Kumaris boast to be the first female spiritual leaders and first and best at everything it seems ... I want to add another topic about "Only in India" to give some balance.

First up, the extent of sick tragedy and the madness of it all ...

Woman rejects rapist marriage bid

An Indian woman who was raped has rejected a marriage proposal from the rapist. She had been asked in court whether she would accept the proposal from her attacker who had hoped it might lower his sentence.

The convicted rapist said he was offering to marry the woman because the stigma of rape in India meant no one else would.

The man was convicted last month of raping and seriously injuring the 22-year-old nurse in September 2003 at the hospital where they both worked. The woman suffered a gouged eye and facial scarring, for which she has undergone surgery four times.

The man's lawyers said he was planning to appeal to a higher court against his conviction.

Delhi witnessed more than 300 sexual assaults in 2004, but women's groups say there are many more because victims fear social discrimination if they admit they have been raped.

India to launch cow urine as soft drink

India plans to launch cow urine drink, called "cow water" - in Sanskrit, to promotes ideology of Hindu-ness. India's Hindu nationalist movement, the Cow Protection Department of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), says the drink is in the final stages of development.

The Times reports the drink is the latest attempt to cleanse India of foreign influence and promote its ideology of Hindutva, or Hindu-ness.

In defence of the cows, it is actually a lot safer to drink cow's pee than it is to drink most of the tapped water in India and it is better for you than a coke. Drunk fresh from the ... cough ... it is actually sterile and an ancient ayurvedic medicine.

This thing that Hindustan is the oldest, wisest culture and the source of all things, and so on - yep, sure it's pretty old and has a lot of history, but it needs to be put into perspective, which means cut down to size.

The highly respected Indian historian Ms Romilla Thapar, has gotten into a lot of hot water with the BJP, Vishwa Hindu Parishad and other Hindu fascists for even suggesting that there was a pre-Vedic, pre-Aryan India and that the indigenous people were conquered and mistreated (Sounds like the history wars here down under, and whitey's' only been here 200 years).

Philology and genetics - two very precise disciplines - indicate the African Rift Valley as the probable "cradle" of Homo Sapien.

I am not sure about the Indian cows with all the garbage they eat but the cows I had, who were eating organically grown grass and hay, had a very sweet smelling pee. Not sure I'd be ready to drink it though!

If you do ... there was also a 'cow milk, urine and dung' toothpaste to wash your mouth out too being sold at the Krishi Expo.

I just want to know what the guy was up to when he discovered that formula because it would probably get him arrested in most developing nations.

Now, if there was even a positive argument for practising "Traffic Control" in India ... this is it:

Lane driving/stopping at intersections is for novices, ex-l. Just one Formula One driver - Narain Karthikeyan - from India so far . I am sure it is a conspiracy!!