Baby with two faces worshipped as Hindu god
By Rahul Bedi in New Delhi
Last Updated: 1:47am BST 03/04/2008
A baby girl born with two faces in a north Indian village is being worshipped as the reincarnation of the Hindu god, Lord Ganesha.
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The three-week-old unnamed baby from Saini village in Uttar Pradesh state, 30 miles north-east of the capital New Delhi, is being hailed as a "miracle" child.
"At first I was a little afraid," Vinod Kumar Singh, the 24-year-old father said of his first child born last month. "But then I accepted whatever God gives."
To the largely illiterate villagers from the agricultural community the little girl is a reincarnation of Lord Ganesh, the half person and half elephant, and one of the most worshipped deities in the Hindu pantheon.
"It's a gift from God. Some people say she is like a goddess," schoolmaster Harsharan Singh gushed.
Little, however, is known of the baby's physical condition as her parents are not permitting doctors to examine her.
"They are not aware enough that they should come in for treatment," Dr M Ashmosd, who delivered the baby at the local government hospital, said.
"I have told them that we are ready to do the CT scan on her for free. But they have ignored me."
"And if she dies it's as God wishes," he added.
Last year surgeons successfully separated a two-year-old girl from a conjoined headless twin and reconstructed her body in a gruelling operation lasting nearly 27 hours in Bangalore, southern India.
Born with four arms and four legs but a single head, Lakshmi Tatma was named after the four-armed Hindu goddess of wealth and is growing up normally.
