Posted on 06/26/2014 2:34:14 PM PDT by nickcarraway
A 13-year-old boy was considering having his tail removed despite being worshipped as a god because of it.
Arshid Ali Khan, from Punjab, India, is seen as the incarnation of Hanuman, a Hindu monkey god, because of the mysterious growth emanating from his lower back.
But he now has the chance of being able to move without the use of the wheelchair if he has it surgically removed.
This tail has been given to me by God. I am worshipped because I pray to god and the wishes of people come true, he said.
Arshid was not worried people may stop making pilgrimages to see him if he underwent the operation.
He added: Doctors can remove my tail but people will continue to believe in me.
But his grandfather, Iqbal Qureshi, who he lives with, was not convinced the surgery would improve his undiagnosed disorder.
It is for Balaji to decide. If he wants to get the tail removed, we do not mind, he said.
He has trouble walking and so we are asking doctors what can be done.
Arshid was not the first person to have a mysterious tail, with a man from West Bengal and a child from China also being born with the peculiar growth.
“Arshid Ali Khan”
That doesn’t strike me as a Hindu name.
Christ had such a simple message.
Nope, but it is a common Paki name in the UK.
“This tail has been given to me by God. I am worshipped because I pray to god and the wishes of people come true, he said.”
What god would this be?
I know Khan is common in India (biggest movie star in the world is Shahrukh Khan, for instance - and he is an Indian Muslim).
But the names Arshad, Ali, and Khan all sound like Muslim names. Yet he is worshipped as a Hindu god. I wonder about his family history.
Interesting. The whole South Asian subcontinent is like a planet in itself, so huge, so complex, so culturally alien -—I am woefully ignorant about most of it.
Yep. And there must be something else wrong since I don’t see how that would keep him from walking.
“....biggest movie star in the world is Shahrukh Khan....”
.
Sheesh, I always thought it was Douglas Fairbanks Jr.
If he can’t wag it, it’s not a tail.
The important thing to remember about India is that if there are billion to one odds of something happening to somebody, it’s probably happening there right now.
Wow.
Forced to have it removed? Coming soon to a town near you.
Why do his hands look like they belong on an eighty year old?
Too much time in the Ganges, I suppose.
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