A Bus-Driving Monkey, A Unique Cake-Cutting Ceremony And Other Shockers From India
Every passing month, incidents in India take a turn for the more bizarre. Here's a few of them
“I need only one. Can I get the free one?” (Illustration by Raju Epuri)
Did you know cutting a cake can land you in jail? In December 2018, M. Krishnamurthy, a food delivery man in Chennai decided, quite bizarrely, to cut his birthday cake with a two-foot-long machete, which was handed to him by his friends, Sunil and Nivas Kumar. The act, recorded in a 15-second video, was shared online and went viral on social media.
The baffling incident caught the attention of the police who registered a case against them under the Arms Act (among others). The three were then remanded in judicial custody after being produced before a magistrate court. Jailhouse Rock for a birthday jingle!
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If humans can drive buses, surely monkeys can do it too. In late 2018 in Karnataka, this observation was demonstrated by a monkey who decided to have a go at the steering wheel. According to reports, the monkey boarded a state transport bus and headed straight to the driver’s seat, refusing to budge. Amused, and a little helpless, by the monkey’s antics, M. Prakash, the driver allowed the monkey to take charge of the vehicle, while holding on to the steering wheel from behind his ‘surprise guest’. None of the 30-odd passengers seemed to be too alarmed by this.
Unfortunately, a video of the incident led to Prakash’s suspension later. The monkey, for his part, left the bus once it reached its destination, walking into the sunset, without so much as a backward glance—like a true Hollywood Western hero.
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Quite often, Google Maps loves to play pranks (unintentionally) on the unsuspecting traveller, leading them up the path to nowhere, or to a destination quite far from the intended one. That’s when the local people and the good old ways to find a place come in.
Take for instance, the case of the popular Baga Beach in Goa. Tired of dealing with lost visitors who have been misled by the app suggesting a wrong route to the beach, the local people have put up a banner that clearly says: “You are fooled by Google Maps. This road doesn’t lead to Baga Beach!!! Turn back and take a left turn, Baga is 1 km from here.” Now, this is a ‘feature’ you can never expect from smart mapping solutions!
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What was that again?
A unique cleanliness drive. (Spotted by Sanjay Pathak, Jalandhar)
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The Uttar Pradesh government is looking to revive a dying trend among its police personnel—that of sporting big, twirly moustaches. The iconic ‘manly’ trend seems to have declined in recent years, but the additional director general of the provincial armed constabulary, Binod Kumar Singh, seems determined to turn the script around. How? Those who sport robust moustaches will be rewarded. A proposal to increase the allowance for maintaining a moustache from Rs 50 to Rs 250 is also in the works, Singh says. He feels this will “boost the personality” of the cops. We can only hope that there are equally robust measures to bring down the crime rate in the state.
