SOCIETY

Indore man relishes eating bulbs, embers and sand

     Indore: Believe it or not, a twenty-year-old man in Indore has a penchant to munch electrical bulbs, relish sand, walk on embers and perform many dare-devil acts that most of us may find too weird to emulate. Suresh Chauhan of Khachrod Village near Indore doesn't frown his eyes as he goes about performing such stunts as any normal day routine. He can eat three kilograms of sand at one time. Chauhan says his joy to play around with glass induced him to endure breaking more than fifty empty beer bottles on his forehead consistently. And, to fill up his cracked forehead skin, he dabs red chilly powder on the bruises and cuts. He performs all this to amuse people around without thinking too much about its danger to his life. Chauhan enjoys giving himself with 'acupuncture', in which, he pushes the needles of assorted syringes all over his body, incidentally his first ever attempted act.

     "A dare-devil television program "Shabash India" motivated me to pinning needles on my body to emulate those participants who used many syringes on their bodies and competed each other in different events. Chauhan says: "I started with a thousand needles and raised it to fifteen hundred needles. Soon, I touched 2,100 needles. I am keeping an eye on it since last year and no one has succeeded in putting so many needles till date. I found the idea enticing, as it could earn name and fame for oneself with just a few stunts." Chauhan's family says his hobby proves expensive, as one empty beer bottle costs around one to two rupees and a syringe comes at about ten rupees. Chauhan has been practising these acts for the past one year. Neighbours, however, are optimists that Chauhan will succeed in getting his due recognition at bigger platforms. Most of the time they help him arrange money for his practice. Chauhan has taken training under an expert Prahalad Sharma. He has taught him all dare-devil skills like munching glass, dancing on fire and swords. Though the acts are too dangerous to be performed by any normal person, the doctors feel the stuntmen can perform such acts, provided, due care is take to avoid risking one's life. "Eating sand does not harm your body much. It would pass out with excreta in the morning. Even if glass is eaten, given that it is grinded very minutely will not harm the body and just like sand will pass out in the morning. Bigger pieces of glass, if swallowed just like that, they can scratch a body internally and cause internal bleeding," said Dr. Ashok Gupta, a medical specialist. Gupta, commenting on Chauhan's embers eating stunt, said: "Every brain has a pain bearing centre which has varying capacities depending on person to person. Thus, a person can tolerate pain to a particular extent after which a person feels the sensation. By performing these dangerous acts, Suresh has increased his pain bearing capacity tremendously and thus experiences very less pain."
-June 10, 2007    

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