Holy crap

A few days ago, our newspapers were aghast with news of a petai tree in Kepala Batas showering its surroundings with droplets of water. People from near and far flogged to see for themselves and have a taste of the miraculous act of Nature. For a few days, people from many strata of society have given their devout opinion about this new unknown phenomenon which newspapers call it 'holy water'.

Would you like secretions of cicadas?

A former lecturer reiterated that it could be bodily secretions of mating cicadas whilst another entomologist claimed that these insects do not splay fluids from the body, at least in such massive quantity. Being entrepreneurial in their own way, some entrepreneurs decided to make a killing by charging RM5 per cup. For all you know, they may be selling pipe water!
Some people have tied 'holy' red cloth to give the tree its due recognition, to please the unknown and give it the divine feel that it needs. Punters predict that 'Tua Pek Kong' (holy spirit) has come to the vicinity and is predicting good fortune in the near future. And hopefully, He would also give them some lucky winning '4D' numbers on the side.

Whoa! Holy H2O!

Curious spectators: A group of

people craning their necks to

see the cicadas.

In the mean time, the Islamic authorities have join in the band wagon almost like a knee jerk reflex to warn Muslims that believing in holy water is 'unholy' (syirik). The Consumer Association of Penang, after warning people not to do this and that (from beancurd to belacan to ultrasound scanning etcetera), they warned people to be wary of contracting leptospirosis from consuming urine from some unknown animals. A writer to the editor got a brilliant input from his Indonesian domestic helper whose fellow villagers back home had seen many instances as this one. Her scientific brain suggested that that was how a tree expelled excessive water from its system. Her fellow villagers took it as a sign to denote that the vicinity was a fertile ground to dig a well. To disprove the maid's theory, the writer challenged the authorities to dig a well!
This reminds me of how holy ash used to materialise from a certain sage's photograph's feet for a short period of time all the world before the fad died a natural death as fast as it started. In fact, I had the golden opportunity of witnessing this miracle in my sister's abode. Even a few years before that (1995), the world was flabbergasted by the milking drinking antics of Lord Ganesha's statue. The mind boggling thing about the whole affairs was that it occurred simultaneously the world over to stone idols of Lord Ganesha and like clockwork it all stopped short all at once.

Milk Miracle of September 21, 1995.

Some mumbo jumbo scientists that  explained this occurrence by capillary action of the architectural make up of granite stones of the idol as it did not happened in plastic or other crystal idols. They, however, could not explain why all these stopped just like that without recurrence.
Interestingly exactly 14 years after the milk drinking episode, there was milk vomiting episode which stirred many quarters for they feared that they may have upset or short-changed the Lord in their dealings with or during His birthday celebrations (Vinayakar Chaturthi).
Just like the unexplained events that has been happening around us, pretty soon these events will go into our annals of things beyond comprehension of our simple minds. Maybe some smart paranoid individual  may throw in a spanner into our mangled minds of conspiracy theories, alien visitations or even American biological warfare! - just like the 2004 Boxing day tsunami. Think about it.... The chemical analysis from the floral secretions should be out in 2 weeks or so, In the mean time, let the newspapers start something wacky for us to ponder about.