From the “Waste of Good Firewood” folder comes story in this story about a Bhopal man who was put on his funeral pyre, only to come back to life. All the gory details (warning: this story contains projectile vomiting) can be read in the Asian Age.
If the projectile vomiting wasn’t an issue, also from India comes the story of a hospital mortuary that was probably in Room 101. It seems the vermin problem at Osmania General Hospital in southern India was so bad, three families reported that rats had managed to gain entry to the mortuary and, as the New Indian Express delicately put it, “mutilated” the faces of their dearly departed. (And if movies like “Ben” are any indication, once they get a taste for human flesh, there’s no stopping them.) So the mortuary took drastic measures: putting out poison-laced pakoras and laddus to tempt the discerning rodent with a taste for both savory and sweet treats. Judging from the story, though, the rats (“huge” ones, according to a hospital employee), might be the least of their problems. The same company hired to rid the hospital of his rat population has also been charged with controlling the stray cats and dogs found there. Is poisoned Tandoori Chicken next on the menu?
Tensions may be heightened in the mideast, but a London coroner has managed to bring together the city’s Muslims and Jews. The Jerusalem Post reports that Mary Hassell, the Senior Coroner at St. Pancras court is being accused of showing “a total disregard for, or ignorance of, the law” by ordering that “no death will be prioritized in any way over any other because of the religion of the deceased or family, either by coroner’s officers or coroners.” Jewish and Islamic law both demand the body be buried as soon as possible after death. In addition, she has revoked a ruling allowing the bodies of Jews to be kept at a Jewish funeral home so the ritual shemirah, or watching over the body until burial, can be performed.
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