I stand corrected. The villagers need a vet, for crying out loud.

M. Nam

They did not, you can find some more info here

Telugu news papers covered this under District news. According to Eenadu.net (its in Telugu), there is caste angle to this incident.

Someone needs to make a Bollywood movie about this; to naive me, that’s the fastest way to reach the masses and start a dialogue about ignorance regarding “black magic�.

I dont think Bollywood would deal with serious issues like this, but there are couple of Telugu Movies about Black Magic and “Child sacrifice“.

Anukokunda Oka Roju , a critically acclaimed Suspense Thriller about issues like Black Magic, Drugs and God men. Danger, again a Suspense Thriller covering Child Sacrifice

What could have been printed though is that belief in the only true God leads some in the U.S. to hack homosexuals to death. Sorry, couldn’t resist feeding the troll.

its all there: mass hysteria, pseudo science (recovered memory syndrome), religious like idoeology (victimology feminism), and political oppourtunism (janet reno in the frank Fuster Miami day-care case and Scott Harshbarger–who went on to head Common Cause in the amirault case.)

and of course real victims who spent many years in jail until the hysteria blew over. it just goes to show, often the most sophisticaed among us are the most primative.

not to mention how important black magic is to soap operas not only the indian ones – yes, Passions in the US comes to mind…and yes that does mean that I’ve watched that horribly campy but entertaining show

Janeofalltrades Belief in black magic is common in some parts of rural India, despite the country’s robust economic growth and cutting-edge high-technology industries.

I hate to say this but rural India isn’t the only place responsible for fearing and belief in black magic. The belief is alive and well in most of India and even in major cities. Black magic or “Jadu tona” is something I heard of so commonly when growing up. Sure we don’t set people on fire for believing in it but then we match horoscopes and wed trees and other such nonsense in order to weard off ‘evil’.

So true, not to mention how important black magic is to soap operas not only the indian ones (addiction of my mom and many other indian aunties out there, thanks to Ekta Kapoor) but also ones here in the US.

“wed trees” >> lol, now I look at that with a whole different perspective

as for manglik: from wikipedia: “Mangal Dosha is an astrological condition that occurs if Mars is in the 2nd, 4th, 7th, 8th, or 12th house of the Vedic astrology lunar chart. A person born in the presence of this condition is termed a manglik.

This condition is believed by some to be devastating for marriage, causing discomfort and tension in relationship, leading to separation and divorce, and in some cases, it is believed to cause untimely death of one spouse. This is attributed to the “fiery” nature of this planet. If two mangliks marry, the negative effects are believed to cancel each other out. However, Mars is not the only planet in Vedic Astrology that is supposed to affect the relationship and these effects should be seen in a broader perspective of overall astrological compatibility.

There is also a belief that the negative consequences for a single-manglik marriage can be resolved if the manglik first performs a ceremony called a kumbh vivah, in which the manglik “marries” a banana tree, a peepal tree, or an icon of Vishnu.[1] However, this belief is also seen by some as perpetuating untouchability, contrary to India’s constitution.”

mrinal pande has a nice piece about the bacchan wedding but I can’t find the links …

A search on “Sayanna Pochamma Sunil Kumar” gives the exact same story in papers in Mideast, NewZealand(!!), blogs discussing this story, and Online edition of Express India which gets its news from Reuters.

As for the lack of coverage in India, unfortunately the murder of an elderly rural couple, regardless of the circumstances, isn’t big news

Looks like you don’t watch local TV. The crime-beat section of local language news in extremely good in India nowadays. They actually get to the scene by helicopter within an hour and start interviewing people. Their sponsors demand juicy stuff, so the newshounds have a hyena’s hunger for stuff like this. Sitting here in New Jersey I sometimes see news where “A man kills his brother suspecting an affair with his wife” in rural Maharashtra. I mean, the news team actually gets there while the guy is still bleeding and the body is still warm!

M. Nam