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Holy man in India begs question: Can we survive without food or water?
photo by ~FreeBirD®~ (source: Flickr Creative Commons)
An 83-year old Indian man named Prahlad Jani claims to have not eaten or drunk anything in 70 years. Not bloody likely, I hear you say, but what if it’s true?
Not eating or drinking could be a great solution to pesky human disasters like food and water shortages: Starving? Dying of thirst? Just don’t do it! Climate change, climate schmange – if this old guy can manage it, anyone can.
The Indian government is curious enough to test Jani’s claims and have locked him in a private hospital under constant surveillance by a team of military doctors who are prodding and poking him with all medical science has to offer. 108 hours in and he seems healthy, but a few days are nothing for a 70-year veteran of food and water-free living.
From an AFP report:
The tests on Jani include magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans, measuring brain and heart activity with electrodes and other neuro-physiological studies, in addition to blood tests. The experiment started on April 22 and will take 15-20 days. Since the beginning, Jani has neither eaten nor drunk and has not been to the toilet, Ilavazahagan said.
The Indian government would like to use the secret of Jani’s success and apply it to the fields of space travel and defense. Residents of Shoreditch, London – forever seeking ways to fit into skinnier jeans – are awaiting the results with bated breath.
Check out this video report on the story from Al Jazeera English:
Indian ‘holy man’ perplexes doctors
by Graham Land
Tags: doctors, food, holy man, India, Indian, Jani, Prahlad, water
4 Comments
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Thanks, Jayson.
I was using it incorrectly, but purposefully so, in imitation of bad tabloid headlines like the ones in The Sun. Beg can mean “ask” and holy men or renunciates in India are known to beg for alms. Since there is also the well-known idiomatic expression you referred to, I guess I just couldn’t resist.
Great article, and a fascinating story to watch over the next couple of months.
I have to point out one major problem with the headline, I’m afraid. “Begging the question” is a phrase used to describe a circular argument, such as “Joe never lies, I know this because he said so, and since he never lies, it must be true.”
Rather than “begs question,” the phrase you want is “raises question.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Begging_the_question
Thanks, Devin. You are right that was a pretty big typo. It has been fixed.
The author of the above article made a tremendously erroneous typo: instead of writing 108 hours, he wrote 108 days.