Cow piss makes them touchable

Touching the untouchable

Moving on from untouchable subjects one finds light relief in another situation that is supposed to make the untouchable touchable in India.

Apparently, a high-caste teacher and her accomplice performed a ritual of exorcism by spraying cow urine on low-caste students in order to purify them and help them study better.

Just like Nigeria, religion holds great sway that the ability to objectively analyse a situation with God-given brains and intellect is given up for the adherence to practices and doctrines that sometimes make the mental health of the practitioners questionable.

One sometimes wonders how prayers would work if an understanding of the situation is not properly grasped, researched and appreciated - instead, we pray vacuous words of incoherence and hope the jumble would line up properly somewhere and an answer not so obvious would materialise as a miracle.

Suddenly, the warmth of holy cow water might have a better soothing effect than calloused knees.

Meddling with another untouchable

For instance, one area in which people have required supernatural intervention is dealing with cancer; many expect a flash of light or some sudden enlightenment almost too reminiscent of a night club and disco lights.

Whereas, from a medical perspective we know that cancer requires nutrients; blood, water and minerals from the foods and nourishment we take, to thrive; certain drugs are being developed to starve cancers of nutrients thereby shrivelling the growths and making treatment even more effective.

A prayer or affirmation along the lines of denying cancers of nutrients you have taken to nourish your body might just be the key to a miracle; else another cup of cow urine might serve as tonic too.