my collleague forwarded this piece to me which is in www.cnn.com/world today. Children 'buried alive' to appease Gods More than 100 children have been buried alive in India as part of a 400-year-old ritual to appease two female deities. They were buried for about a minute during a ceremony known as Kuzhi Maatru Thiruvizhaa, which translates as festival of pits. The ritual is practiced by a small group of Hindus in Tamil Nadu. It is observed every five to seven years, in the belief that villagers' wishes will be granted by goddesses Muthukuzhi Mariamman and Kaliamman. Only prepubescent females are allowed to take part but there is no age restriction on males. The participants are supposedly rendered "unconscious" by relatives who sprinkle ash on their heads and spray turmeric water on their faces before carrying them to a burial ground in front of a temple. According to tradition, if the child fails to fall unconscious the burial is deemed cancelled and the family fined the equivalent of £13.47. It is reported gravediggers ensure the children are too ''exhausted'' to try and wriggle out of the pit at the time they are being buried. The children, wrapped in yellow cloth, are lowered into makeshift graves, which are fully covered, and pulled out only after priests say a minute has passed. C.Durairaj, Tamil Nadu's minister for Housing and Urban Development, who was guest of honour at the ritual in Perayur, told The Indian Express: "I went there and witnessed the festival on the invitation of the community which organised it. I've nothing more to say." A former president of the Perayur Council, known only as Kaliraj, claimed there had been no untoward incident at the festival so far. There have been protests against the ritual but politicians are apparently loath to intervene. Police do not see it necessary to interfere in the absence of complaints from the general public. Thursday 22nd August 2002 is this true??? holy **** !! i am wondering waht kindda life im living ...where everything seems so right and everything seems great...!!! i still dont want to believe it ! ..sorry to put it in this forum, but i hav no other place to vent out my displeasure and anger ... these uneducated ...devils !! barbarians ...n sick politicians