[Reader-list] Urban Legend or fact?

[Monica Narula]

I am sure that the memory of the Monkey Man is still fresh, along 
with that other more rural Wolf-man. Now there is the Muhnocchwa 
(Face Lacerator). And this one seems to be even less "explicable" 
than the ones before. I wonder if there are such "personae" in other 
cities/countries that people could post about?

best
Monica

2 reports on the Munocchwa phenomenon
__________________________________________________________
1. From the Times of India, Lucknow Edition

Extra-terrestrials invade UP, says IB
PERVEZ IQBAL SIDDIQUI
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow.asp?art_id=19397236
TIMES NEWS NETWORK [ SATURDAY, AUGUST 17, 2002  11:16:30 PM ]

  LUCKNOW: With five visuals of what is feared as the muhnochwa 
`trapped' on video tapes -- three of which were recorded by the team 
of intelligence sleuths in the state -- the scare does not seem to be 
unfounded. The sleuths
who had worked on muhnochwa do not rule out the possibility of the 
presence of an extra-terrestrial body (ETB) with electro-magnetic 
(EM) effect in at least three per cent of the cases. While the Indian 
agencies were yet to
admit the presence of ETB, foreign research agencies, intelligence 
reports said, have already been to the affected areas, met the 
victims and collected necessary data.

Sources said that after going through the video tape provided by the 
wife of a lawyer in Mirzapur and another frame recorded by a resident 
in Sitapur, which had a flash of light speeding through one end of 
the lens to another within a second, an intelligence team reached 
Sitapur on August 7 and set up an indigenously-designed observatory.

A base of a mixer grinder was fitted with lights of the colours that 
the victims had narrated before the team varying from orange, yellow, 
green to the most common red and blue combination. The apparatus was 
put at a height in total darkness. The idea behind the exercise was 
that the extra-terrestrial body may take note of something resembling 
it and might come near it. And it did. At 1:05 am a flash of light 
neared the apparatus.
"It was like the photocopier top plate with that sharp light while 
taking impressions," revealed a member of the team while drawing a 
parallel. The team, comprising forensic experts, serologists, 
medico-legal experts,
electronic engineers and physicists equipped with night vision 
devices, zero light video cameras and telescopes apart from other 
gadgetry, was witness to the "light" which was seen thrice. It 
descended close to the handmade
muhnochwa and then disappeared. The video clipping has a flash of 
light running across the screen but nothing more.

The team of experts also conducted a study by filling up a 
questionnaire on the basis of the experience of the victims from 
Mirzapur, Bhadohi, Varanasi, Jaunpur, Sitapur, Hardoi, Bara Banki, 
Rae Bareli, Lucknow and Sitapur. Out of
a sample study of 100 injured victims, 10 were found to be victims of 
an insect bite or scratch. Another 10 suffered the injuries 
indirectly (like bruises while running after a scare in the night). 
The remaining had one or
more of the following four common factors: Experiencing electric 
shock, seeing sharp light, feeling hard oval object.

Out of 80 people, 65 were found to have suffered physical injuries 
and there were three who tried to overpower the ETB. "All the three 
had suffered hundreds of scars, as if caused by a blade, on the palm 
and it was inexplicable by any team member," said an expert who 
examined the injuries adding that this was what raised possibilities 
of an ETB being out there. But there is still a long way to go before 
these experts could come up with anything conclusive on the muhnochwa 
scare.

However, Dr NK Mehrotra, professor, department of physics at Lucknow 
University, said that such possibilities were remote. Similar views 
were aired by his colleague Professor Chaman Mehrotra. "It may be out 
of
atmospheric changes that such things might have occured and then 
someone might have added a dimension of mischief to it by putting up 
a man-made thing in the air," he said. Managar ISTRAC, a unit of 
ISRO, CD Sharma too expressed his doubts over possibilities of an 
ETB. "I do not knwo what type of a study has been conducted and what 
were the findings but with what I have gathered from the media 
reports, the ETB theory remains unconvincing," he said talking to 
Times News Network.
____________________________________________________________________
2. From the Times, London

India calls in X-Files agents to unmask face-scratching alien
by Catherine Philp
UFO sightings have sparked hysteria and riots, says our reporter

The Times, London
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-389122,00.html
August 20, 2002

A MYSTERIOUS flying object said to attack sleeping villagers has 
sparked mass hysteria and rioting across the north Indian state of 
Uttar Pradesh.

Police shot dead one man and injured 12 others when a mob of hundreds 
stormed the police station in Barabanki, demanding protection against 
what they believe is an alien assailant terrorising villages.

The object, described as a flying sphere emitting red and blue light, 
is said to strike in the middle of the night, leaving victims with 
burns or scratches on their faces and limbs, and earning it the name 
the muhnochwa
(face-scratcher).

At least seven unexplained deaths in the area have been attributed to 
the muhnochwa, sparking panic among villagers who blame police for 
not providing enough protection.

Officials have suggested a raft of explanations, from an alien 
invasion to a new and unknown breed of insect.

Perhaps the most bizarre theory was that of Police Deputy Inspector 
General K. N. D. Dwivedi, who said that the assailant was a 
genetically engineered insect introduced by “anti-national elements” 
from outside India to cause
mayhem.

In common Indian parlance, this is taken to mean that it was the work 
of the Pakistani spy agency, the universal scapegoat for all 
unexplained Indian woes. That theory has not won over many believers.

Villagers across the region no longer sleep outside, as they usually 
do during the sweltering summer heat and long power failures, fearing 
that they will be easy prey for the muhnochwa.

In some villages the entire population are squeezing into the 
headman’s house for the night, seeking shelter and safety in numbers. 
Having lost faith in the police, villagers have formed nocturnal 
protection squads.

In Shanwa village, where the attacks are said to have started, men 
patrol all night, banging drums and shouting slogans to frighten off 
intruders, such as: “Everyone be alert. Attackers beware.”

Residents have dismantled television aerials and taken satellite 
dishes down from their roofs, fearing that they may attract the 
mysterious object. Even radios have fallen silent at night under 
selfimposed blackout.

The Times of India reported that the national intelligence bureau was 
sufficiently concerned to send its own agents, like Mulder and Scully 
from television’s X-Files, to investigate the “alien” invasion.

After listening to villagers’ descriptions of the muhnochwa, the 
agents constructed their own replica from the base of a 
mixer-grinder, fitted with coloured lights, and hoisted it onto a 
pole in an attempt to entice the extraterrestrial. Then they waited.

At 1.05am they were rewarded with a flash of light “like a 
photocopier”, which repeated three times. A videotape was said to 
show a flash of light passing across the screen. The agents concluded 
that the villagers were right
and that they were indeed experiencing an extra-terrestrial invasion.

Local doctors, however, have dismissed the phenomenon as mass 
hysteria, saying that most of the injuries have been self-inflicted 
by panicked villagers, evoking memories of the “monkey man” hysteria 
in Delhi last year.

At least three people died jumping from roofs and dozens more were 
injured during the mystery simian’s two-week reign of terror before 
officials dismissed it as a mass delusion and sightings petered out.
-- 
Monica Narula
Sarai:The New Media Initiative
29 Rajpur Road, Delhi 110 054
www.sarai.net