The Quirkiest of May!

While I was sipping on my cold coffee on a summer afternoon of May , I read about a rather weird yet hilarious offer being made! A young lawyer from Kenya, offered to marry US President Obama ' s daughter who is just sixteen for fifty cows, 70 sheep and 30 goats. 

The fellow professed his immense love for her and also suggested that once she moved to his village after marriage he teach her how to milk a cow, cook ugali (a starchy dish) and prepare mursik (a sour milk). This by far was the quirkiest news of the month of May for me. Of course it made for great coffee time gossip and brought out a smile on everybody's face whenever it was discussed.

I can't say any in about the genuineness of the proposal being made here but one thing I can can say for sure that in today's day and age of globalisation and technology all it takes to be world famous is a little bit of quirkiness!  The lawyer from Kenya became a rage world over as the news about his offer spread like wild fire across the international media!

Image from Google (lawyer on the left and Obama daughter Malia on the right).

As if this was not enough another quirk that started doing the rounds in May was that the devastating earthquake that struck  Nepal , a small country adjoining India, was blamed by some Indian politicians on religious offence of eating beef and cow slaughter by the people of Nepal.

 Image from Google (Nepal Earthquake)

Nepal experienced  the worst earthquake in decades , which was 7.5 on the richter and lead to much destruction and death of thousands of people. However some insensitive politicians had to give this tragedy a communal flavour and blamed this event on the wrath of Gods. The cow is considered sacred in the Hindu religion and Hinduism is the dominant religion both in India and Nepal. Thus a few fanatics had to blame this tragedy on the slaughter of cows taking place in Nepal to meet the beef demand. This was happening even though geologists had given detailed explanations about the reason for the earthquake. There is really no end to superstitious belief and the manipulation of people's sentiments by politicians.

Image from Google (Nepal Earthquake)

Last but not the least, Maggie , a noodles brand in India which has been a favourite of millions for ages was found to contain very high levels of lead and monosodium glutamate. These high levels are not fit for human intake and therefore the product was banned country wide. However the moot question here is that if Maggie noodles which is such a common brand that it is available on the shelves of practically every grocery store and is marketed by a very well known brand i.e., Nestlé could violate the food safety rules like this then what is the status of the other lesser known products. Really there is a need to beef up our food security laws, here in India.

                                        Image from Google