There's a joke about Hindus and Indians, which questions why they have the red dot on their forehead. It's from people tapping them and asking "why-are-you-so-stupid"? Is it fair to belittle third world living and countryside superstitions? Yes, it is.A baby with two faces was born in a northern Indian village, where she is doing well and is being worshipped as the reincarnation of a Hindu goddess, her father said Tuesday. The baby, Lali, has an extremely rare condition known as craniofacial duplication, where a single head has two faces. Except for her ears, all of Lali's facial features are duplicated — she has two noses, two pairs of lips and two pairs of eyes.
"My daughter is fine — like any other child," said Vinod Singh, 23, a poor farm worker. Except the double face thing. But otherwise, you're right!
When Lali left the hospital after delivery on March 11, she was swarmed by villagers. Up to 100 people have been visiting Lali at her home every day to touch her feet out of respect, offer money and receive blessings. In rural India, the deeply superstitious (read: idiotic) people hail the girl as a return of the Hindu goddess of valor, Durga, a fiery deity traditionally depicted with three eyes and many arms. Doesn't that prove it? She's got four eyes and two arms, which doesn't match the description at all.
Lali's condition is often linked to serious health complications, but the doctor said she was doing well. "Clearly the child is in no immediate danger but it has to be checked whether the oral and nasal cavity and other passages" are functioning properly. And if the doctors out in the middle of podunk India say the kid is fine, they must be.
"The doctor said everything is normal when she was born. So where's the need to get medical help?" said the father. "I don't feel the need of that at this stage as my daughter is behaving like a normal child, posing no problems. Whatever God has given me is acceptable. What can we do about it?" he said. Really? Can't come up with one or two ideas? Enjoy your two faced kid...
1 comment:
The father has the guilty look (and tousled hair) of a little boy, while the mother just looks pissed (at God[s]). Yeah, they are too poor to do shit about it. Like the Turkish bear-crawlers, they are too fundalmentalist/polytheist/Hindarded, and too poor to think about...science. Although, part of me wonders if Famous M isn't implying euthanasia? Don't they have sonograms in Mumbai? Maybe they secretly see Lila as a cash-cow sideshow-freak, they're gonna write a book, be on Oprah...
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