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Culture

Cobra as Babysitter - Desi Ishtyle

By: Santosh :+: Under: Culture, Desi Ishtyle, It Happens Only in India, Pictures, Religion
On: ⋅ May 13, 2007 ⋅  Email this post ⋅  Print this post ⋅ Post a comment
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Nestor of Marlinspike Hall, (classic Tintin references) points us to this online video.

UberDesi tip -100% free desi ishtyle: Using a cobra as a babysitter may not be such a good idea.

In a coming-of-age ritual, a one year old child, is laid on a mat with a cobra. As the child reaches out to grab the cobra, the angry serpent strikes repeatedly at the child, with the parents standing in the background (refer to image). At the end frustrated by the baby, the cobra traps the toddler in its coils trying to strangle it. It should be pointed out that the serpent was defanged and its mouth sewn shut.

But this entire episode is ridiculous and wrong at so many different levels. Number one, the child. Who would put their child in front of one of the most venomous snakes in the world??!!! Even if it is defanged, cobras are known to grow back their fangs resulting in over a dozen deaths each year in the snake charmer community. Then there’s the story of animal cruelty. Grabbing a snake, pulling out its fangs and sewing its mouth shut - all this for a stupid superstitious ritual. And finally, if this was captured by the TV cameras, how could the crew bring themselves to sit and videotape a child being attacked by a cobra???!!!

And people wonder, why Indians and Hindus in particular, are projected as “the exotic east” in the Western media! Next time, someone asks me one of the dumb questions on India: “Did you guys have cobras as pets?”, I won’t have a smart-ass answer for that one.

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