Eighth time lucky for Kailash?

NEW DELHI – An Indian man who fathered seven daughters has not washed for 35 years in an apparent attempt to ensure his next child is a boy, newspapers reported. Kailash ‘Kalau’ Singh replaces bathing and brushing his teeth with a ‘fire bath’ every evening when he stands on one leg beside a bonfire, smokes marijuana and says prayers to Lord Shiva, according to the Hindustan Times.

‘It’s just like using water to take a bath,’ Kalau was reported as saying. ‘A fire bath helps kill germs and infection in the body.’
Kalau, 63, from a village outside the holy city of Varanasi, outraged his family by refusing to take a ritual dip in the river Ganges even after his brother died five years ago. ‘I still don’t remember how it all began,’ he said in Saturday’s edition of the paper. ‘I just know it started about 35 years ago.’
Kalau’s hygiene regime has taken its toll on his professional life.
The grocery store that he used to own closed when customers stopped shopping there due to his ‘unhealthy personality’ and he now tills fields near Varanasi airport. Kalau, who wears two pullovers all through the Indian summer, said his pledge not to wash was a commitment to the ‘national interest’.’I’ll end this vow only when all problems confronting the nation end,’ he said.
But his neighbours in the village of Chatav said there was another reason for Kalau’s washing boycott.
‘A seer once told Kalau that if he does not take a bath, he would be blessed with a male child,’ a man called Madhusudan told the paper. Most Indians prefer sons, who are typically regarded as breadwinners, while girls are seen as a burden because of the matrimonial dowry demanded by a groom’s family and the fact that their earnings go to their husband’s family. – Nampa-AFP