Meet Max Gogarty, the latest addition to the Guardian’s company of travel bloggers. Don’t let his appearance fool you. Beneath those £400 sunglasses, that meticulously tossed coiffureage and the carefully cultivated stubble perforating his lilly-white androgyne throat throbs the lion’s pulse of an adventurer. The most obvious allusion is to a swarthy Richard Burton, carving away his foreskin with a dirty flint in a cave just outside of Mecca before bravely entering the holy city where white men feared to tread. But more so! This is the face and soul of the adventurer, the hero, the titan.
But like most titans, Max has already found himself the target of a swarm of small, envious Lilliputians. After a few short hours of his introductory post going live, Max has received over 500 outraged comments from the Guardian’s readers: a cacophonous roar of shrill, petty voices from which only the words “twat”, “git” and “wanker” can clearly be discerned. His lithe, twink-like muscles are restrained by the flossy ropes of jealousy. It irritates the gossamer lanugo of his alabaster skin. This incessant biting, of the lesser, lice-like humanoids, sucks the radiance from this Herculean man-of-action.
But what’s the rumpus? Who is this homoerotic love child of Achilles and Adonis? Who is this avatar of colonialist adventure, hearkening back to an age of heroes? Who is Max Gogarty?
Before your eyes is the pinnacle of human achievement, one Romeo Dev. A man whom, while obviously shortchanged in stature, has an undeniably otherwordly ardor about him. And really, why should he not? Were you the height and weight of an average pre-adolescent child, and still able to rend your enemies limb from limb, would you not strut in the manner of a peacock? Would you not smile sadly as you imagined the oncoming storm of your adorably tiny monstrous rage? I submit that you would, and that the world would tremble at your feet as it does Romeo’s.
Police in southern India are hunting for two men who attacked a Hindu holy man, cut off his right leg and then made off with it.
The 80-year-old holy man, Yanadi Kondaiah, claimed to have healing powers in the leg.
He is now recovering from his ordeal in hospital in the city of Tirupati in the state of Andhra Pradesh.
Local people believed they could be healed of spiritual and physical problems if they touched his leg.
But here’s the thousand dollar question: if the police recover the leg and then touch the stump with it, could Godman (as he is apparently known) grow another holy leg? Slap a Web 2.0 website together and that’s a business plan if I ever heard one.
From the 1983 film Mantrigari Viyyankudu comes “Manasuku Dosthi”, an amazing song with a killer bass-line and equally killer moustaches. Witness our moustachioed hero as he confronts surprised old people, wields a huge glowing sword, and throws down the meanest dance moves to ever grace the screen. Prepare yourself for the unstoppable force of nature who is, Chiru.
When Lakshmi Tatma was born, in a poverty-stricken region of Bihar, India, her mother believed she was “a miracle, a reincarnation” of the goddess Vishnu. It’s not hard to see why she would say this. You see, Lakshmi, was born with four extra, non-functional limbs.
This will soon change, however. Lakshmi will be undergoing a two hundred thousand dollar operation by a team of thirty surgeons, working in eight hour shifts, to separate her from her headless, parasitic twin, fused together at her pelvis.
Surely there is no doubt that this is the right, and only, option. However, one cannot help but wonder what life may have been like as the physical manifestation of a Hindu goddess.
Despite his massive beard, Havaldar’s moustache holds its ground, using the chin foliage more as a dais to support its own sleek swoops, like a glossy eagle stretching its wings atop an altar. From the photo’s description:
Havaldar Sukhdev Singh, is a Sikh soldier of the Indian Army, engineer paratrooper serving with the Special Forces, previously known as Para Commandos. These elite regiments are the pride of the Indian Army and are highly respected for their acts of bravery. I have enjoyed my special association with the 10 Para Commandos for 23 years now, which is like my own Regiment to me. I have great respect for the Scorpions (all ranks of the 10 Para (SF) are known as Scoprions as a brand). Recently, I went to call on Scropions and had opportunity to photograph some of the handsome soldiers.
Sikhs have enjoyed special place in the Indian history and that of the Indian Army, known as `Bravest of Brave’. They are unique and great people, very warm and bold.
Friends, I have just got back to base after 12 days in the field.
In sheer defiance of the World Wide Web Consortium's will, Ectomo was designed using a non-web-standard font. Luckily, it is included in the excellent font pack released by the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society, which can be freely downloaded in Mac and PC formats here. Ectomo should still look fine without it, though.
