One Lost Head, One Lost Bride: A Hard Weekend in India

Earlier today I got up and began my usual routine of drinking my coffee and going through the wires to see what news had come in when two articles came to my attention that alerted me to the fact that while my weekend was far from perfect, there were at least a couple of people in India that were having it far worse.

The first article that I came across was about an employer in the eastern Indian state of Jharkhand who drug his employee out of his house in the middle of the night, had two others hold him down and beheaded him with a sword. Naturally with something like this you have to consider that the offense of the employee was something quite hideous and heinous but actually the employee had just failed to milk his boss's cows. You'd think that the cows would be more upset about this than the employer but the good news is that a murder charge has been issued and an arrest was made. It's certainly stories like this that make me feel a little bit better that I am still in the market for a new job and haven't actually found one yet.

It makes you wonder though, was this something that the employee knew would happen if he forgot to milk the cows? Did the employee forget to read the fine print of his employee contract that said 'note: if you fail to milk the cows I have the right to slice your head off with a sword.' Talk about a severance package. Oooh, that was a very poor pun and I'm not proud of that one.

The second story that came across the wires that caught my attention was yet another story that came out of eastern India in which a groom didn't get to participate in his own wedding. According to witness accounts, the groom arrived at his own wedding in Patna, India very drunk and acted very inappropriately and rudely to the family of his new bride to the point of her family and other villagers chasing the man out of town. The happy ending to this story is that the teenage bride was still able to get married when the groom's younger brother accepted the invitation to take his place. At least I think that's a happy ending. Again, it makes me happy to know that I don't have a brother so if I show up drunk to my wedding (note to the my girlfriend: I'm just kidding baby, I'd never show up to our wedding drunk... please don't make me sleep on the couch tonight) he can't take my place.

Possibly the best part of the story however is the quote from a senior police official who said that "The groom apologized for his behavior, but has been crying that word will spread and he will never get a bride again," that's what you call priorities folks!

Again, it's sad to know that I had a bad weekend but compared to these two stories... getting lost in downtown Portland in the middle of the night suddenly seems like a cake walk.