Gives a whole new meaning to the term 'Bouncing Baby'
April 27, 2008 8:33 PM   Subscribe

The real secret to producing superheroes (bollywood or otherwise) is to start them young, really YOUNG. (Link to single video)
posted by sk381 (48 comments total) 4 users marked this as a favorite
 
COULD NOT WATCH

Seriously, I shut it down as soon as I realized what they were talking about. This needs a NSFP tag.
posted by Zinger at 8:40 PM on April 27, 2008


Eh. I don't see a problem with this if the kids aren't hurt. Looks kinda fun, actually. I can think of worse religious practices.
posted by ColdChef at 8:48 PM on April 27, 2008 [1 favorite]


Oh my god don't watch this.
posted by tristeza at 8:48 PM on April 27, 2008


Actual story, such as it is. A perfunctory google search didn't turn up any further information on the practice.

Both Hindu and Muslim families participate, though, so there's at least a inclusiveness factor to consider!

Also, at least they aren't slicing off a portion of the baby's anatomy like some heathens as part of their barbarous religious practices!@!!!

disclaimer: I don't really have a dog in the whole circumcision fight, but someone was eventually going to make the point so I went ahead and did it
posted by yhbc at 8:52 PM on April 27, 2008 [1 favorite]


The tosser and the catcher are really quite good.
posted by Mr. President Dr. Steve Elvis America at 8:53 PM on April 27, 2008 [1 favorite]


Woops. Actual story.
posted by yhbc at 8:53 PM on April 27, 2008


I had a wierd mixed feeling of 'shock-horror!' and 'woah, cool!' from watching that. Apparently babies bounce.

But uh, isn't that bad for their brains? Shaken baby syndrome and all.

Also, who thought of this first? That's what I want to know.
posted by empath at 8:54 PM on April 27, 2008


Scary! Then again, when I was born my parents had a piece of my dick cut off.
posted by [NOT HERMITOSIS-IST] at 8:55 PM on April 27, 2008 [3 favorites]


Wow, that didn't take long at all!
posted by yhbc at 8:57 PM on April 27, 2008


Well, with one practice, the kid emerges fully intact....
posted by pmbuko at 9:00 PM on April 27, 2008


Highest-pressure job in the world: baby-thrower.
posted by brain_drain at 9:04 PM on April 27, 2008 [2 favorites]


Highest-pressure job in the world: baby-CATCHER.
posted by ColdChef at 9:07 PM on April 27, 2008 [5 favorites]


I'm not surprised the police don't interfere, they've got their hands full with people falling down wells and ending up in the dead position (not to mention dying of old age at 37).
posted by tellurian at 9:12 PM on April 27, 2008


But uh, isn't that bad for their brains? Shaken baby syndrome and all.

Maybe. The injuries from shaking a baby are caused by the repeated rapid acceleration due to the shaking and the rotational force imparted on the brain from the head flopping back and forth (from what I recall from working in the shaken baby industry).

The babies in the video are subject to less rapid acceleration, and their heads remain aligned with their bodies (you can see that the thrower is quite careful to make sure the baby's head and hips hit the sheet together).

It's probably not a great idea to drop a baby off a building, but it's not the sort of thing that gives shaken baby syndrome-type of injuries. In fact, baby killers will often try to argue that the baby just fell off the bed, but the injuries from a single fall and from being repeatedly shaken are quite different.

From what I understand, babies are really quite resilient to falls.
posted by Mr. President Dr. Steve Elvis America at 9:16 PM on April 27, 2008


A careful baby-thrower is key.
posted by hojoki at 9:18 PM on April 27, 2008


Did Michael Jackson take a vow at the Adlon Hotel?
posted by tellurian at 9:20 PM on April 27, 2008


In America, I notice that we really, really baby our babies and children, compared to the rest of the world. It's almost Victorian.

Baby bones and such aren't yet hardened and brittle like grown-up bones, or like grown-ups. Other than a flat-out landing-on-top-of-head causing spinal trauma, it's hard to imagine something that would really damage the body here. Heck, even top-of-head wouldn't matter, I bet. There is not much weight/force there, especially with a surface that gives so much on impact.

Don't ask parents of one child about this, because they all believe their kids are made of crystal. Ask parents of six or seven children, the type who don't even get out of their chairs anymore when they hear the kid's fallen down the stairs again.

Babies are durable.

That said, what a silly superstitious exercise.
posted by rokusan at 9:24 PM on April 27, 2008


the shaken baby industry

Where's my local dealership? I need to get my shaken baby fixed, and I think there's still a month left on the warranty.
posted by Saxon Kane at 9:30 PM on April 27, 2008


:: It's probably not a great idea to drop a baby off a building

This has been a MetaFilter public service announcement.
posted by dgaicun at 9:45 PM on April 27, 2008 [1 favorite]


I feel like I just felt all my Indian friends collectively cringe.
posted by whoaali at 10:02 PM on April 27, 2008 [1 favorite]


I wonder how this practice started. It might have simply been a very early form of eugenics--any baby that couldn't survive the fall wasn't fit enough to be part of the community. Or a way of showing off how healthy your babies are--you can throw them off a building an they're fine! Or maybe, like snake handlers, there's just some line in the Vedas that God never expected people to take seriously.
posted by Citizen Premier at 10:40 PM on April 27, 2008


Can I give that a go now? I think I missed out on that one when I was a kid.
posted by loquacious at 10:41 PM on April 27, 2008


I think you've got it on the eugenics thing.
posted by empath at 10:46 PM on April 27, 2008


Damn. I usually like it when things are given whole new meanings.
posted by PM at 12:00 AM on April 28, 2008


Metafilter: It's probably not a great idea to drop a baby off a building, but...

I am also hard-pressed to find any more information on this. Solapur's web site does state that their infant mortality rate is 14%, however.
posted by whir at 12:25 AM on April 28, 2008


I did find this blog post with embedded YT video documenting very similar-looking baby-dropping practices in the Bijapur district, which looks to be relatively close to Solapur (but my Indian geography is terrible).
posted by whir at 12:39 AM on April 28, 2008


Amateurs.
posted by BrotherCaine at 3:14 AM on April 28, 2008


The babies in the video look a bit older then newborns, like maybe 3 or 4 months old? But what strikes me is how small the sheet actually is. The thrower has to have pretty good aim.

Anyway, even if the baby isn't injured, it does seem like it would be kind of painful. :/
posted by delmoi at 3:19 AM on April 28, 2008


Also, there used to be a PC game (mid-late 80's) like this, but with babies (and in english).
posted by BrotherCaine at 3:23 AM on April 28, 2008 [1 favorite]


I like how the critic is described as a 'rationalist'

Two other thoughts: The babies look so ridged as they fall, and, er, bounce. They must be tensing all their muscles up.

I think it illustrates a healthy relationship to risk. People in the U.S. are so terrified of stuff happening to their kids, as well as themselves. It gets to the point where too much fear has negative consiquences for society. India, with a billion people has a prison population of about 300,000 or so people, while the U.S. has a prison population of three million people.
posted by delmoi at 4:07 AM on April 28, 2008 [1 favorite]


BrotherCaine, I just had the most surreal experience. Seeing your comment and remembering the game, I decided to search for it just now. Hesitating over the Google search box, the words "bouncing babies" came, as if from nowhere, into my head. And son of a gun if I didn't get it right the first time. I'm astonished. I haven't played -- or so much as thought of -- that game since the late 80s. Bizarre.
posted by sdodd at 4:08 AM on April 28, 2008 [1 favorite]


Nightmare fuel.
Until I was 12 I used to wake up in a cold sweat after my falling dreams.
Now I get to have nightmares about my toddler falling, too.
Need more Fluffy Kitties in my life...
posted by Dizzy at 4:28 AM on April 28, 2008


I'm okay with this, but mostly just because I'm fantasizing about being the thrower. And that instead of torturing helpless, innocent babies I'm allowed to substitute annoying adults of my choosing. And that the police with the sheet are on a cigarette break. Oh, whoops.

But otherwise, yeah... it's probably not a great ritual.
posted by miss lynnster at 4:33 AM on April 28, 2008


What about the bathwater?

Someone had to ask
posted by MuffinMan at 5:21 AM on April 28, 2008


I don't have the time to view this again right now as I'm running out to work but what I seemed to have noticed is that the babies aren't crying at any point in that video. Am I wrong?
posted by I-baLL at 5:25 AM on April 28, 2008


Well, some such cultures discovered primitive forms of vaccination. That which doesn't kill me only makes me stronger & all.
posted by jeffburdges at 5:48 AM on April 28, 2008


I don't see what the big deal is; days after I was born, my mom set my feet on fire. It was good for my health as is proved by a) the fact that I'm still alive, and b) the fact that I didn't cry once on the video. Case closed.
posted by kristinahoge at 5:49 AM on April 28, 2008


Geez, there's no aim involved. Just dropping from a known point. I'd like to see arcing trajectories, and maybe celebrity guest appearances from people famous for accelerating small objects into the air - Troy Aikman or Michael C. Griffin of NASA. If you're really operating under a fatalistic umbrella, it's not your fault if the baby watermelons on the pavement below. God did it.
posted by jimmythefish at 6:24 AM on April 28, 2008


I found those images to be shocking, terrifying, and, to a lesser extent, hilarious.
posted by Mr. Anthropomorphism at 6:26 AM on April 28, 2008 [2 favorites]


And to think I freaked out when my son rolled off the couch (he was fine, I was not!).

We used to jump off old buildings into snowdrifts and also hurtle ourselves into the air over a sand pit.

I'd still be danged if I would let someone throw my kid off a roof tho', but then again, I'm not very religious.
posted by Marie Mon Dieu at 7:02 AM on April 28, 2008


Yeah, but I want to see them throw and catch a Bumble! Of course, if they miss, Bumbles bounce much like the babies.
posted by cjorgensen at 7:08 AM on April 28, 2008


From what I understand, babies are really quite resilient to falls.

I remembering reading and article (possibly linked from the blue) about the secret life of doctors... apparently most pediatricians have dropped at least one baby (it's scary the first time they say)
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 7:26 AM on April 28, 2008


I think it illustrates a healthy relationship to risk.

I agree. In India, I saw people riding motorcycles and scooters with their babies - no helmets, no protection - all the time. That's a lot more dangerous than this, I think. This looks like fun, actually.
posted by me & my monkey at 7:48 AM on April 28, 2008


I don't have the time to view this again right now as I'm running out to work but what I seemed to have noticed is that the babies aren't crying at any point in that video. Am I wrong?

The first baby being held by the thrower is crying.
posted by delmoi at 8:24 AM on April 28, 2008


I think it illustrates a healthy relationship to risk

These times, they are a changing. I came back from India on Saturday and drivers have started to wear seat belts (it's the law) and you find signs encouraging drivers not to talk on cell phones while driving.

That said, a guy on a bike drifted into the path of my car because he decided to send a text message while riding and I lost count of the number of times a random item (Look! a lump of concrete) managed to find itself in the centre of the carriageway and everyone just drove round it.

But I'd imagine as the middle class expands and they get to quite like their lives they'll become a lot less risk averse. Whether that filters down to the rest of the population sooner rather than later I'd be less certain.

From what I can see, many Indians simply have either little choice about risk (can't afford a car so ride a motorbike, for example) or little understanding of risk (rural populations are, apparently, still highly sceptical of exactly who is trying to immunise them, and with what, and regularly refuse vital child immunisations). I suppose one could call it a healthy relationship with risk but it's not really as if they are generally abandoning a safe option for something more daring by choice.

I have always wondered though what kind of theological thinking eventually evolves into "throw your baby from a tall building". What did they do before there were near and available tall buildings? When did the first baby get chucked, and why?
posted by MuffinMan at 8:36 AM on April 28, 2008


Also, there used to be a PC game (mid-late 80's) like this, but with babies (and in english).
posted by BrotherCaine at 3:23 AM on April 28 [+] [!]


I had this Nintendo hand-held, as a kid.
posted by stifford at 10:56 AM on April 28, 2008 [1 favorite]


Babies are pretty tough. When my younger brother was a baby he fells down the stairs (they had carpet, sure, but there were twelve of them) on at least four separate occasions. In fact, the first time my mother let me hold him, I dropped him. My parents hit me with a car (it was going pretty slowly, but it had enough force to knock me down) when I was first learning to walk. I once saw a new walker stand up and put his head through the bottom of a glass coffee table. Kids fall down, they bounce, and they get back up again. We were fine.

Besides, why is everyone so worried? Is there a sudden shortage of babies that no one's told me about?
posted by Parasite Unseen at 3:15 PM on April 28, 2008


Not scary at all. Not dangerous. Fun and joyful! I started giggling.
posted by facetious at 12:20 PM on May 3, 2008


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