CBEB’s

A tip of the headgear to Reason Magazine Hit & Run.

When an Indian politician recently accused a foe of placing some sort of Tantric hex on her, a TV station in India scheduled a debate between rationalist Sanal Edamaruku and black magic practitioner Pandit Surinder Sharma. The result? Sharma got pwned, big-time.

The debate went in to overtime when Edamarku challenged Sharma to kill him using his tantric magic:

The encounter took place under the open night sky. The tantrik and his two assistants were kindling a fire and staring into the flames. Sanal was in good humour. Once the ultimate magic was invoked, there wouldn’t be any way back, the tantrik warned. Within two minutes, Sanal would get crazy, and one minute later he would scream in pain and die. Didn’t he want to save his life before it was too late? Sanal laughed, and the countdown begun. The tantriks chanted their “Om lingalingalingalinga, kilikilikili….” followed by ever changing cascades of strange words and sounds. The speed increased hysterically. They threw all kinds of magic ingredients into the flames that produced changing colours, crackling and fizzling sounds and white smoke. While chanting, the tantrik came close to Sanal, moved his hands in front of him and touched him, but was called back by the anchor. After the earlier covert attempts of the tantrik to use force against Sanal, he was warned to keep distance and avoid touching Sanal. But the tantrik “forgot” this rule again and again.

When the clock struck midnight, the show’s anchor declared Sharma’s magic an Epic Fail:

Millions of people must have uttered a sigh of relief in front their TVs. Sanal was very much alive. Tantra power had miserably failed. Tantriks are creating such a scaring atmosphere that even people, who know that black magic has no base, can just break down out of fear, commented a scientist during the program. It needs enormous courage and confidence to challenge them by actually putting one’s life at risk, he said. By doing so, Sanal Edamaruku has broken the spell, and has taken away much of the fear of those who witnessed his triumph.

I wish our news channels would do stuff like this; it would be a welcome relief from these “Breaking News” stories about Britney Spear’s New Look.