squeeeb

farmers in india are having girls plow fields naked to piss off rain gods and make it rain.

story here: Naked girls plow fields for rain | U.S. | Reuters


ok, really?

i want to respect the beliefs of others and different cultures and such. at the same time, it kind of fascinates me that people in india, a country with tech savvy people, highly educated people, are still trying to appease the rain gods.

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onward to mayhem!

Psycho Dad

They raised water rates here last week. I'd like to have naked girls work in my hop garden so I don't have to water.

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Punk.of.Ages

That kind of seems out of place to me too.

...but, who am I to say girls should keep their clothes on?

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Willravel

This is how meteorologists get women.
Farmer woman: "Is it going to rain tomorrow? Will my crops grow?"
Meteorologist: "I dunno, is your top coming off?"

Plan9

... they're trying to get the rain gods to jizz in their pants.

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Whatever you can carry.

"You should not drink... and bake."

Jetée

It is fascinating. I wish I could come up with a "traditional" custom that would allow me to institute a "topless" policy where I work and wander.

Are you criticizing the practice, or are you commending the "forward-backwards" thinking that is being brought to play?

I personally like that to better the future, this tiny community in India has sought to the past customs of their ancestors, and found an innovative way to appease their village residents (and perhaps the rain gods as well). I'm appeased, and I'm nowhere near a participant in this culture.

Hey, if it works, it works. No matter if it's a coincidence (everything is; you're just not thinking about the right time is all) or not.
If it doesn't--well they gave it their best shake, don't you think?

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Plan9

I just think it's funny that The Mighty West is so ass-backwards-running-through-a-cornfield that we find things like nude aboriginal women in National Geographic magazine pornographic.

That and something tells me most of these women aren't members of the Perky Puppies club.

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Whatever you can carry.

"You should not drink... and bake."

genuinegirly

Goes to show that even in the most well-educated nations, there are remote parts of the countryside where superstition persists.

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dippin

well, you don't have to go to India, nor to remote parts of the country side, to find that. One person's religion is another's superstition.

Zeraph

Genius!

Plan9

How very American Caucasian of you.

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Whatever you can carry.

"You should not drink... and bake."

FuglyStick

I am a rain god. Show me your boobs.

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AZIZ! LIGHT!

Plan9

Actually, I think Tully might be the rain god. That has to be what he does with his days when he's not doing the stuff we'd all rather be doing.

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Whatever you can carry.

"You should not drink... and bake."

Baraka_Guru

This.

This is why I must visit India.

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genuinegirly

There's no denying what I am. Though for the record, they are Caucasian as well.

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"Sometimes I have to remember that things are brought to me for a reason, either for my own lessons or for the benefit of others." Cynthetiq

"violence is no more or less real than non-violence." roachboy

Jetée

Wow, as of Crompsin's last reply, the number of words in my post above is only 30 words less than the total number of words submitted by everyone else's replies combined.

I didn't think I was such a veritable waterfall of words.

/end weird tangential wave

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As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world (that is the myth of the Atomic Age) as in being able to remake ourselves.

—Mohandas K. Gandhi

Plan9

It's okay, Jetee. You have quality and quantity... I have neither and yet somehow my daily post count is still higher than most.

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Whatever you can carry.

"You should not drink... and bake."

Jetée

I think I falsely portray myself as a guy with too much wisdom than he knows what to do with, but that's not true.

I just got into the habit of saying more of what could be said with little to throw off suspicion of what is reality: I rarely can retain the knowledge of more than eight words at a time within my mind, along with their definition and correct usage, so as it goes in my struggle to find the right word, what results is that I begin to babble. I've tried to turn it off, but I think my once self-implemented habit has become an addiction along the way.

Truth is: I only think when given a query; otherwise, the rest of the day, my mind is an empty balloon in search of pictures, consuming trivial anecdotes on wikipedia, listening to three-year-old podcasts, watching cartoons, learning different languages, and at times, pondering why I never get things done.

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As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world (that is the myth of the Atomic Age) as in being able to remake ourselves.

—Mohandas K. Gandhi

Halx

The sucky part is that in our country, our superstitious crowd is afraid of nudity. Damn it.

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Xerxys

cellophanedeity

Interesting idea.

If my entire life was going under because it wouldn't rain, I'd try to appease the gods too.

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Charlatan

The population of India is over 1 billion. The percentage that are "tech savvy people, highly educated people" is very small.

It should also be noted that this sort of superstitious behaviour is found all over the Western world as well (albeit in a different flavour).

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Jetée

Wearing white garments after "Labor Day", the number and/or level "13" in apartment and commercial buildings, opening an umbrella indoors, throwing a coin into a public fountain, getting nookie before an important sporting event; things of that nature, right?

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As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world (that is the myth of the Atomic Age) as in being able to remake ourselves.

—Mohandas K. Gandhi

mixedmedia

I got all the way to the bottom before anyone said it.

Only a small portion of the Indian population is tech savvy and highly educated. Much like China, there are vast regions of the country that still function much as they did 100 years ago.

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little_tippler

In a way, this is amusing. In another, it seems distasteful to sexualize or mock it. Why is this news? They're certainly not naked for our pleasure. I also find it candid somehow. I don't know, maybe I have no sense of humour today but the thread title is pretty tacky. :shrug:

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We are ever unapparent. What we are
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To be our soul and gesture it abroad,
Our hearts are incommunicable still.
In what we show ourselves we are ignored.
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By any skill of thought or trick of seeming.
Unto our very selves we are abridged
When we would utter to our thought our being.
We are our dreams of ourselves, souls by gleams,
And each to each other dreams of others' dreams.

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JumpinJesus

Those superstitious people are wacky. I hear there's this other group of wacky people somewhere in the world who eat little crackers because they think they're cannibalizing some guy who died 2,000 years ago. They also drink wine or fruit juice because they think it's his blood. And even further, they think that by eating these crackers and drinking this wine or juice that he'll grant their wishes because his dad is really powerful.

But that's certainly not as silly or charming as dancing for rain.

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The_Jazz

If you change it to this:

it puts things in a different light.

You know, India has their own version of rednecks. The Pentacostals are such an easy target, but we could talk about the Shakers or the Christian Scientists.

But, yeah, this thread is useless without pictures.

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Redjake

pics or it didn't happen people!!!!

Crack

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dlish

my sentiments are quite similar to charlatans', probably because we both have exposure to indian expat workers who happen to be of a 'lower class'.

the number of 'educated' indians in far outnumbered not only in india but also in overseas as well.

this superstitious behaviour is not dissimilar to many thoughts all over the world. ech to their own i guess. i wont mock it. i'd love to see a photojournalist cover the story though

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Walt

Smarter, not harder. I'm actually a little disappointed for not thinking of this.

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Calmer than you are...

squeeeb

thanks for your valuable input....

and now we've reached the tipping point.

it's kind of like radiation poisoning. you can take a little dose here and there without noticing, but it accumulates, and you get that final small insignificant dose that just maxes you out.

there is plenty of stuff you (and others) say that i disagree with/find stupid/dislike. the difference is, i, being the brash, crass, rude, obnoxious american that you just "don't get" keep it to myself, because opinions and beliefs and ways of looking at things vary and i can respect that.

have you ever replied to anything i've written without somehow criticizing me?

what i find amusingly hypocritical is i used an old joke in a thread and offended the delicate sensibilities of our more sensitive members and was slammed for it, yet over in humor, when the EXACT same phrase was used, no one batted an eye.

so i can only come to the conclusion that it's not what i say, it's just that i said it.

i seem to have been relegated to the role of "controversial guy," and i'm uncomfortable with that role, it's nothing like me, i'm not even close to that.

it gets old and tiring.

and you will say "dude, have a thicker skin" but i'm not the one who is constantly offended and upset by what i write.

and you will say "dude, you are having an emo moment" but, to quote little tippler:

maybe I have no sense of humor today............. :shrug:

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onward to mayhem!

uncle phil

what are you trying to say?

a little clarification without the facetiousness would lend a bit of understanding...

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Redjake

Let's get this back on topic: somebody post pictures of Indian chicks without shirts on.

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Off the record, on the q.t., and very hush-hush.

Punk.of.Ages

____________

I don't know what joke or thread you're referencing to, but I'd guess it was all about context. A joke in a serious thread/area of the forum will be taken much different than a joke in the humor section. Just look at "The Party Thread". Half the shit said in there would probably warrant a warning if said in a different area.

I don't think anybody's really picking on you, squeeeb. You just put your opinion out there a lot, man, and the further you put yourself out there, the easier you are to hit with a rock...

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"Punk rock music is great music played by really bad, drunk musicians." -Fat Mike

murp0434

.......+1

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How did I become upright?

ASU2003

This is the third time I've typed this... stupid Firefox/computer crashing.

If it rains, it's good. If it doesn't rain, you still have naked girls in the fields. Sounds good to me.

If I were a rain God, I would want this Indian girl out in the fields naked.
[Hot Playboy pic, but NSFW]
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2009/...79_634x473.jpg

Charlatan

Squeeb... you really shouldn't take *any* response personally. It's just an opinion it's not an indication that you are a bad person, or that others don't find the OP amusing.

The fact is, in some lights, your post is offensive. In other's it's hilarious. It's all about how the reader sees it.

Thicker skin and all that...

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biznatch

I don't see the OP as offensive. Sure, we could all go around, and use fancier, more neutral words to say the same thing, but squeeeb just said it as he reacted to it. Sometimes, it can come out too harsh, but here, I think he's just using everyday words to express his surprise at people doing this. He didn't go out of his way to make it offensive, IMO.
just my 2c.

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Jetée

I echo the same sentiment, as I already did above, in my semi-too-long fit of diatribe.
Also, so people don't come in asking, that was/now is a portrayal of Padma Lakshmi.

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As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world (that is the myth of the Atomic Age) as in being able to remake ourselves.

—Mohandas K. Gandhi