A man in Bihar named, Ram Ayodhya (Über Desi nomination for the holiest name), hired a “magician” to cure his wife and when her magic did not cure (imagine that), he accused her of black magic and collected a mob to rough her up. Besides the obvious superstitious and social angles to this story, CNN’s orientalist radar working overtime caught this story and put it on the CNN front page. [link]

A Muslim stand-up comedian from Bihar. Here’s a sampling: about the stereotypical world view that Muslim men are terrorists and Muslim women oppressed. “Don’t believe that, Have these people ever been in a Muslim household? It’s the other way round, believe me”. Seems more like a desi Muslim Carlos Mencia. [link]

The Delhi police have a saying – “When in rooms, do as Roman does“. Now that makes no sense. However, this one does – Biharis in Punjab, do as sardars do.

Lakshmi, a 2 year old, from Bihar who was born with 2 arms and 6 legs underwent surgery to remove her extra limbs. Lakshmi, of course, was named after the multi-limbed Hindu goddess Lakshmi, a.k.a, the goddess of wealth and viewed as a reincarnation of the same deity in the rural areas where she hailed from. I’m not sure, who’s dumber, the villagers from rural Bihar for making her a reincarnation of a goddess or GMA and ABC News for extrapolating (page 2) that children with deformities are often viewed as reincarnations of gods in rural India.