What a sad waste

Today, there was a small article which was unobtrusively placed in a tiny section of the daily paper which, not surprisingly, caught my attention.

When US engineer Paul Roediger visited the Jagannath Temple in Puri, he literally didn't know what he was getting into!

At Jagannath Temple, there's an age old 'tradition' which allows only Hindus, Jains, Sikhs and Buddhists born in the Indian subcontinent to enter. So, when Paul Roediger was caught wandering inside, the local priests were predictably outraged. So much so, that they decided to bury the food which was to feed 7000 devotes, as it had been 'defiled' by the 'corrupting' presence of the foreigner.¹

Once sufficient hue and cry was raised, the local police took Roediger into custody. A three hour round of questioning later, they realized that there was no law to 'punish' Roediger, but still allowed him to leave only after he paid a fine of Rs 209 to finance the 'cleaning ritual'.²

Contrast this, with the fairly recent starvation deaths in Orrisa.³ At least they could have given away the food to the numerous hungry people below the poverty line who can't afford a decent meal, instead of burying it? ⁴


Notes

[2] - Sources close to the author of this post, indicate that the cleaning ritual is based on a simple, yet marvelous theory.
Now, it is currently well known that the brains of engineers and scientists are a source of those atheistic subatomic particles, corruptrons. In those of subcontinental origin, corruptrons are mysteriously blocked by the large amount of melanin in the skin. However, in 'foreigners', especially Americans and Europeans, the lack of melanin means that corruptrons are freely emitted. These free corruptrons have the unique property of interacting and negating the 'holy fields' which permeate temples.
This is when priests effectively employ the 'cleaning ritual'. Through the effective use of mumbo jumbo, priests have the ability to create powerful 'faith' particles, which are the anti-particles to the corruptrons. Whenever a faith particle meets with a corruptron, it annihilates the other in a flash of irrational logic, thus restoring the holy field.

[4] - Unfortunately, the corruptrons trigger an irreversible decay which leads to the emission of more corruptrons when they interact with food. This is why the food must be buried.