HUMAN PLAY-NET

Sonepur  (Bihar): Away from the din and bustle of city life, rural women can be seen cooking food on hearths using cow dung cakes and dry wood under trees, some others dry their clothes in the open field after a taking dip in the nearby river, while some others can be seen just chatting and listening to popular Bhojpuri numbers on their mobile phones –- that's what the forlorn “Hathi Bazaar” (elephant market) at the famous Sonepur cattle fair looks like this time round. The ever-moving wheel of time has crushed past many traditions and conventions, burying those under the debris of modernisation and aspirations of new-age generations. And like many other traditional events and fests, “Sonepur Pashu Mela” or the cattle fair of Bihar also going the way to enter the pages of history. Spread over sprawling 500 acres along the confluence of the Ganga and Gandak rivers, the Sonepur fair has been known as Asia's largest cattle fair. But this year, the fair doesn't...

Patna, Sep 8 (IANS) They are not Hindus, not even Indians. They all are from various foreign lands, visiting India as tourists; yet they are performing the Hindu ritual of Pind Daan , like lakhs of other Hindus, in the pilgrim town of Gaya in Bihar. Every year during "Pitrapaksh" -- the 15-day lunar period as per the Hindu calendar, falling immediately after "Anant Chaturdashi" or "Ganesh Visarjan" -- Hindus descend on this pilgrim town to perform the  Pind Daan  ritual for salvation of their ancestors' souls. A group of 18 foreign tourists, mostly from Germany, Spain and Russia, offered  Pind Daan  on Friday in Gaya, about 100 km from state capital Patna, much to the surprise of thousands of Hindu pilgrims gathered here from across the country, a district administration official said. "They performed  Pind Daan  in Gaya for their family and ancestors and expressed their amazing experiences," said an official. They will stay in Ga...