Shah Dola – The Story of the Rat Children

Have you ever called of the so-called Rat Children of Gujrat?  Every year, thousands of believers pilgrimage to Gujrat, which is a city in the north of Pakistan, where they pray in the Shah Dola shrine for offspring. If their wish becomes true and the woman delivers a baby, the family often returns to the shrine to sacrifice their first-born to the shrine, where it should grow up and dedicate his life to the god Shah Dola.  However, all the children left at the shrine grow up with physical and/or mental abnormalities. Most of them have a deformed head which also gives them the name Rat Children. Why they all have a rat-like face is quite controversy: The people working at the orphanage, where the children are kept, claim that all the children suffer from a genetic defect or a deficiency, while many others say that the deformation is caused deliberately by human intervention. Some scientists argue that the children at the shrine are forced to wear metal caps while they are still young. This does not only cause a deformed head but also might end up mentally disturbed as the high pressure damages the brain of the children. It is also said that the keepers of the shrine often search for disabled children in nearby villages and cities and take them away from their families. 

If not only this was hard enough for the children, they are also forced to beg at the shrine to collect alms, which are needed to finance the orphanage and the shrine. This is the only income (about 700 US $ per week – quite a lot for Pakistan) and also the government profits from it as they have been in control of the shrine since 1996. It may sound cruel but the harder the children’s disabilities are, the more they earn. It’s clear that no one dares to stand up for these poor children since political enemies are often banned from talking in public about the issue (This is also what happened to one of Pakistan’s top scientists, who investigated why the children suffer from such deformities).

 

Of course, life must be hard for the children living and begging at the shrine… But on the other hand, I think their life could be a lot worse as in this country disabled children are often locked up in their rooms because they are seen as a shame for the family… However, I think the government should try to improve the situation at the shrine and offer the children a better life in decent conditions.

„Make the world less boring – be more AWESOME!“

Although last week’s Wednesday seemed to be a perfect day for a picnic in the park, I spent most of the time studying in my room for a Spanish history exam I had the following day – and after some hours I almost freaked out as all the names of Spanish kings and year dates wouldn’t want to stay in my head. The fact that our neighbour’s children were playing happily outside beneath my window and my flatmates were sunbathing on the balcony while I had to fight with the Visigoths and Romans made me feel even more down. I decided to have a little break and to distract myself a bit with the goal to motivate myself more for studying. I listened to some music on Youtube when I had the idea to search for a pep talk to motivate myself. I just tipped “pep talk” into the search engine and this is what I found:

In years and years of television and watching youtube-videos for hours I have never ever found something as touching, cute, humorous and above all truthful.. Don’t you also think that we are all sometimes a little bit boring? That we complain too often about things we are not willing to change? We all have our own dreams, but what do we do to accomplish them? Do we work hard for it? Or do we just wait for something to help us archiving our goals? 

And what the boy is saying about teams… isn’t it true that we are all in the same team? Shouldn’t we try working together instead of hurting and ousting each other?

Of course, sometimes we have loads of unpleasant things to do, not only for university but for life in general, but there’s definitely no reason in complaining about it. We can also look at it from another perspective and be grateful and glad that we live in a country where it’s possible to attend university and where we can all work on reaching or goals no matter about our sex, skin colour or how much your parents earn..

“You got some work to do? You can cry about it… or you can dance about it!”

A visit to the Volkskundemuseum Graz – Exploring or own culture

Yesterday we went as a part of the lecture “Foundations of Cultural Theory”, which I’m doing as a facultative subject, on a little excursion to the Volkskundemuseum to have a closer look at how culture can be presented in a museum. Although I’ve visited quite a lot museums round the world, I have to admit that I’ve never been to any museum in Graz before, so I decided to join the small group of conscientious students – and I do not regret it!

In our guided tour I learned more about Austria, Styria and our culture than I would have thought. The museum is divided into three sections: The first one deals with living and shows the visitors how Austrians used to live more than a hundred years ago. For this, an authentic “Rauchstube” had been attached into the modern building. There are also many other exhibition pieces like chests (also a so-called “wedding chest” was exposed), beds and old wash boards. For me, this part brought nothing new as my grandparents own a little farm with lots of old furniture, similar to the exhibits (well maybe my grandparents’ furniture is not that old and precious ^^).

In the second part of the museum traditional Austrian clothing was shown. And if you think Austrians only used to wear Dirndl and Lederhosen until the 1950s you’re definitely wrong! In a chronological order clothes starting from the Hallstatt age (simple cloaks made of leather) to the Baroque (pompous dresses – but only for the rich!) to the 20^th century were exposed. Our guide, who seemed to be very well-informed, pointed out a few details and explained the story behind them. For example, there was a dress of an entrepreneur’s wife with a thin leather belt. On this belt a key and a small bag with spoons was attached. Our guide told us that until the 20^th century wearing a belt signalised power and wealth and that this woman even wore the key to the pantry and the cutlery on her belt which made her even more powerful in a male-dominated world. 

Then we came to the third part of the exhibition – which was in my opinion the most interesting one as it was about religion and superstition. Our guide showed us different more or less known things connected with believe. What I found especially interesting was the fact that not only objects connected with the Catholic believe but also with Spiritism were shown. . About a hundred years ago, people in Austria did not only go to church to pray there but also believed in natural spirits and witchcraft. If someone was ill, for instance, and couldn’t afford a doctor (which was very likely) his family members didn’t only pray to the Holy Virgin but also tried to help the sick person with amulets made of special animal bones. If someone built a house in those times they also had to give an offering to the earth spirits in order to pacify them. For this reason living (!!!!) animals like cats were often immured in the foundations of a house. They also found a walled-in cat in a building at the Schlossberg some years ago when they were doing some renovation work and our guide told us that scientists proved that the cat had been alive when she was immured. Another object that was, at least in my eyes, a bit scary was a so-called “hair picture”. When a family member died, a coil of his or her hair was cut off. With this hair a picture was made and hang on the wall to commemorate this person. In the museum there was one of those hair pictures of a couple whose three kids died at the same time. It made me feel quite sad when I thought of the family who had to deal with the loss. Nowadays we are at least able to look at photos of passed away family members in order to feel close to them again but as photos were rather expensive in those times, the parents could only keep their children’s hair… 

The visit to the Volkskundemuseum was a great experience and I really learned a lot – not only about specific cultural topics but also that growing up in a country doesn’t imply that you already know everything about its culture and traditions. You definitely never stop learning.. ;)