Mahatma Gandhi's family is pleading with the Indian government to force an Australian food take-out restaurant called Handi Ghandi -- "Great Curries. . . No Worries" -- to stop using the vegetarian pacifist to sell its food. According to its Web site ( www. handighandi. com ), the company sells a range of meat and vegetarian curries -- including beef, which is sacred to Hindus and forbidden.

According to a local paper, two Yadavs, a cow-herd caste just above Dalits, forced a government school to stop serving the federally mandated lunches after they found out Dalit women had been hired to make the rice puddings. The women were considered "untouchables. " Indian officials are investigating reports that villagers stopped a school giving lunch to its students because lower caste Dalits, or untouchables, cooked the desserts.

India uses condoms as more than a contraceptive. Only a quarter of condoms in India are actually used for protection during sex. The rest are used to in the manufacturing of saris, toys, and bathroom slippers. The condoms are valuable to manufacturers because of the lubricant on them. Sari weavers place the condoms on their thread spools and the lubricant on the prophylactics is rubbed off on the thread, making it move faster through their sewing machines, an Indian industry official explained. Sari makers also turn the condoms inside out, place them on their fingers and use the high-quality lubricant to polish gold and silver threads used in the traditional Indian women's outfits. India manufactures more than 1 billion condoms annually to check population growth and curb the spread of HIV/AIDS

Eighty people are facing charges by the Indian police after participating in an ancient Hindu ceremony, which involves burying children alive. "The festival of the pits" is a ceremony during which children, some younger than one year, are buried alive and dug up after some time. Indian authorities that have been trying to stop this ritual for years, finally took action at a recent ceremony held Monday in southern Tamil Nadu state. The Kuzhimattru Thiru Vizha ceremony, held every two years, is a gathering of parents who have vowed to bury their first child as a blessing. The children are drugged to make them unconscious and placed in shallow "graves" in temple courtyards. The pits are covered with leaves and dirt and the children are pulled out after Hindu priests chant a brief prayer -- lasting up to a minute. If found guilty, participants face up to three years in jail or a fine of 5000 rupees ($114).