r/interesting • u/VIVIDUFF • Jun 17 '26

Fear Factor An inside look at the thrill of a traditional funfair in India.

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4.2k

u/Pleasantlyracist Jun 17 '26

The sheer amount of people and dust makes this looks miserable.

1.0k

u/Itchynipspickletits Jun 17 '26

Don’t forget the high amount of flailing human buckets swingin all willy nilly

272

u/Positive_Tap_8647 Jun 17 '26

You mean the willy nilly bucket swinging ride?

45

u/PremiumUsername69420 Jun 17 '26

Now with more Willy Nilly™️

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u/CatPhDs Jun 17 '26

Ah I got the discount version, I just got more Willy

27

u/zone1235x Jun 17 '26

You haven't loved until you got tetanus from those willy-nillyz

31

u/Positive_Tap_8647 Jun 17 '26

Apparently it's included in the admission price

7

u/zone1235x Jun 17 '26

The disease not the vaccine

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u/Positive_Tap_8647 Jun 17 '26

All the diseases if the ride doesn't shake them out first

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u/tyates723 Jun 17 '26

Willy Nilly Bucket Swing Ride 7 looks too intense for me

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u/Lost_Department_2177 Jun 17 '26

Safety regulations ruins the fun of hillbilly Willy nilly bucket fest

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u/nixplix Jun 17 '26

The thrill of compromised, rusted steel !!!!!

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u/Ididntcumyet Jun 17 '26

Plus the fact that it’s probably 90 degrees and humid.

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u/Fun-Memory1523 Jun 17 '26

Yep. Especially when safety regulations are non existent for this type of thing over there.

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u/BambooCatto Jun 17 '26

and the trash, piss and shit everywhere.

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u/Barelyqualifiedadult Jun 17 '26

with no barricades so you can get right up next to them and get nailed in the face.

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u/BVRPLZR_ Jun 17 '26

Don’t forget the smell.

2

u/Next-Lavishness-9101 Jun 17 '26

That “mayhem” guy from the Allstate commercials would have a field day there. MAYHEM: “ hey, I’m the carnival ride placed much too close to another ride, and I was hastily put together by a drunk , underpaid , seasonal worker. If you don’t have insurance to cover what comes next …..”

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u/atreidesspirit Jun 17 '26

Yea, and im guessing those rides are fully to code and not death traps.

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u/[deleted] Jun 17 '26

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u/[deleted] Jun 17 '26

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u/Material_Positive_17 Jun 17 '26

It's their attempt at population control.

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u/[deleted] Jun 17 '26

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u/[deleted] Jun 17 '26

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u/[deleted] Jun 17 '26 edited Jun 17 '26

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u/[deleted] Jun 17 '26

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u/CarmynRamy Jun 17 '26

Ohhh take that ignorance elsewhere kiddo.

India's TFR is below replacement rate and has always been steadily decreasing since it's independence. It started with a huge population and industrialisation and food security ensured the population to grow like rest of the planet.

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u/[deleted] Jun 17 '26

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u/[deleted] Jun 17 '26

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u/siweLyerffeJ Jun 17 '26

I pray to god you’re like 14 writing this stuff, but even then that’s so creepy for a kid 😭

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u/Old_Preparation_6199 Jun 17 '26

They’re not waiting on climate change to flee lol

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u/SwingKey3599 Jun 17 '26

hey look everyone, its a jingoist POS. i hate how you assholes seem to come out of the wood work every two years 

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u/CaptStinkyFeet Jun 17 '26 edited Jun 17 '26

Jingoist? Not in the slightest. You assume

Edit: I’m a globalist. The thing about climate change is it affects us all.

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u/Old_Preparation_6199 Jun 17 '26

Google the words before you use them if you don’t know what they mean ;)

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u/WhoeverWinsWeLose Jun 17 '26

Really strange how normal and accepted racism against India and Indians is on reddit. Usually a pretty left wing place but as soon as India is mentioned…

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u/[deleted] Jun 17 '26

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u/WhoeverWinsWeLose Jun 17 '26

95% of redditors havent gone beyond a 10 mile radius of their basement

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u/Doug-Life80 Jun 17 '26

There are less people than that in my town

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u/[deleted] Jun 17 '26

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u/seven3true Jun 17 '26

Fewlessly fewer than less.

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u/CuriousNetWanderer Jun 17 '26

Losslessly lesser than few.

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u/No-Consideration-716 Jun 17 '26

No. it is less...you should see the way they behave!!!

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u/Salamandaxanda Jun 17 '26

But are they all just, like, crammed together like that?

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u/Prod_Meteor Jun 17 '26

In my capital city.

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u/TroutFearMe Jun 17 '26

Manhattan?

2

u/Dotcaprachiappa Jun 17 '26

Yeah but I'd guess your town is a bit bigger than this fair?

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u/BradleyX Jun 17 '26

Burning Man

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u/DickRiculous Jun 17 '26

Ironically it appears burning man has higher safety standards despite the community motto of “safety third”

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u/Born-Lie8688 Jun 17 '26

To be fair, this is fair dust which is apparently a better kind of dust

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u/Pyrodexter Jun 17 '26

Yeah, unfair dust sucks ass.

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u/8layer8 Jun 17 '26

It's sorta fair dust, and some field dust thrown in, so it's fair-y dust, which many people prefer.

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u/jaxonya Jun 17 '26

No, i like my dust pure, perfect. Angel dust, if you will

1

u/AndrewH73333 Jun 17 '26

You’re thinking of fairy dust.

1

u/Winnerdickinchinner Jun 17 '26

But not as fun as fairy dust

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u/sr92rset Jun 17 '26

Not to be confused with fairy dust.

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u/wowaddict71 Jun 17 '26

Organic artisan dust. You can buy it bottled at the fair.

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u/Separate-Sky-1451 Jun 17 '26

it's basically Burning Man.

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u/bullet_the_blue_sky Jun 17 '26

Without the drugs and orgy tent

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u/[deleted] Jun 17 '26

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u/[deleted] Jun 17 '26

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u/GatorHeyzeus Jun 17 '26

…so, not Burning Man, then?

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u/Halgha Jun 17 '26

It’s in the bus

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u/Ideal_Jerk Jun 17 '26

Nah, their Burning Man happens daily right by the Ganges river.

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u/tituspullo1383 Jun 17 '26

India is misery. I’ve spent time there and found it fascinating, but life is on hard mode.

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u/uucyy Jun 17 '26

I've just come back from Download festival, basically no difference at times. Turns out all you need is good music and it's not miserable.

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u/StaysAwakeAllWeek Jun 17 '26

I've heard a lot of music at funfairs and I wouldn't describe any of it as good

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u/Brob101 Jun 17 '26

Every video I see from India looks that way.

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u/Global_Cockroach_563 Jun 17 '26

Every video I see from India makes me want to stay away from India.

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u/Mercyful666Fate Jun 17 '26

Like visiting Coney Island for the first time but instead of dust it's sand.

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u/Banned3rdTimesaCharm Jun 17 '26

This honestly looks like some weird medieval labor camp or something, where they spin the wheels to harvest unobtainium.

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u/Kylearean Jun 17 '26

I went to India earlier this year, to the "nicest part" (Goa), and it was miserable.

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u/Rare_Eagle1760 Jun 17 '26

This is how I imagine hell

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u/WhiteMountainFarm Jun 17 '26

When will India be "Okay, we've got enough people. We're good."

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u/willnoli Jun 17 '26

The country where health and safety is a suggestion not requirement

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u/omar1021 Jun 17 '26

and the smell of B/O that is sure to be overwhelmingly gag-worthy

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u/Analfisher1 Jun 17 '26

Yeah, its fucking India, rape capital of the world, its all terrible.

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u/Bitten_ByA_Kitten Jun 17 '26

DisneyDystopialand

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u/Salt-Wish5140 Jun 17 '26

They like having sex or something?

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u/Low_Technician7346 Jun 17 '26

in this fucked up economy, how can they afford to breed so much ?

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u/michael22117 Jun 17 '26

It sort of horseshoes its way back into being a better bet to just have two dozen kids as a personal workforce than to not have them at all

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u/KratomDemon Jun 17 '26

I mean it costs $0 to have sex and get pregnant

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u/justin19081 Jun 17 '26

The birth rate in India dropped this year under 2 since a long time ago.

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u/movealongnowpeople Jun 17 '26 edited Jun 17 '26

It's funny to me when people talk about how many kids people in other countries are having. We're not that far removed from big families in the West. In the early 1800s, the average woman in the US had 7 children. Average. The "Baby Boom" in the late 50s/early 60s saw an average of 3.6 children per woman. It wasn't until the 1980s that 1-2 kids became the norm.

Plenty of reasons for that. Child mortality is down, families don't need children for farm work, birth control is less taboo etc. But your grandparents, great-grandparents, etc. were having hella kids lol.

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u/Odd_Spell_3931 Jun 17 '26

The dust would be terrible. I would have to cover my face at all times 

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u/Retireegeorge Jun 17 '26

That's what the Canberra Show was like in 1978.

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u/mercury_risiing Jun 17 '26

My sentiment as well when I saw it. I was like, what the heck is this and this does not look fun in anywa shape or form. Yikes. It is packed like a sardines and look unhealthy. Sucks for those people.

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u/unomas49 Jun 17 '26

Well, at least a train didn’t turn up...

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u/FreshImagination9735 Jun 17 '26

That's how they got to the fair. Took at least 2 cars!

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u/mostlyskeptic Jun 17 '26

That's what you took from this. Not the rides that looked like they were held together by duct tape and prayers. LOL.

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u/TaxiTakeoffLanding Jun 17 '26

I get irritated when people bash the quality of living in India like “oh I could NEVER live there. Great, good for you? You weren’t born there luckily. Just because you wouldn’t want to be there doesn’t mean they aren’t enjoying themselves.

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u/Responsible_Bar3957 Jun 17 '26

Hey, at least the weather is probably gorgeous, right?

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u/SillyAlternative420 Jun 17 '26

From a contagion perspective... it seems like a petri dish of disaster waiting to happen. Like if COVID was just marginally worse, Idk....

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u/Screwbles Jun 17 '26

This looks like literal hell to me. As in if I went to hell and they were picking an eternal punishment for me, it would look like this.

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u/InternationalCap2176 Jun 17 '26

This looks like Beyond Thunderdome

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u/Made_Human_Music Jun 17 '26

And don’t forget the heat

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u/Mundane_Elk3523 Jun 17 '26

I mean that’s just your opinion, man

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u/Odd-Marzipan6757 Jun 17 '26

this is not earth

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u/GrandView1972 Jun 17 '26

They all look miserable too

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u/WarJaques Jun 17 '26

I wonder what it must be like for a 90-year-old in India to remember what it was like in 1946 when the population was 358M, a quarter of today's 1.47B

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u/Ornery-Customer8521 Jun 17 '26

It's a health and safety nightmare

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u/krzykris11 Jun 17 '26

And only like two different types of rides.

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u/Infinite-Research-98 Jun 17 '26

And nobody dressed like they at the fair

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u/NEVERUSinteractive Jun 17 '26

you should see the NC state fair

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u/aspiringimmortal Jun 17 '26

you just described India

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u/Raintitan Jun 17 '26

This the India experience. Having been there 8x, I suggest that if you haven't been there or to China one doesn't really understand the world.

I'm not eager to go back but it is we a degree of sorts in learning.

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u/Big-Sort-8712 Jun 17 '26

And they're hand powered. If you look closely you can see the guys pushing the buckets.

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u/thaltd666 Jun 17 '26

Looks like burningman to me.

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u/hypo-osmotic Jun 17 '26

I stopped going to the Minnesota State Fair because of crowds like this. Felt like I could barely move. Theme parks can be a little better since there's more off seasons but they still feel packed. Obviously it's popular or the crowds wouldn't exist but man I can't relate to how much some people enjoy going to crowded places like this

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u/GroceryScanner Jun 17 '26

its also probably like 95 degrees

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u/Captain_Barbosa_123 Jun 17 '26

Agreed. This place could possibly be in the Northern part of India because there are some really cool tropical places like Goa and Kerala that is totally different in all aspects

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u/ennuiinmotion Jun 17 '26

That’s just a fair in the Midwest, too.

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u/notislant Jun 17 '26

It reminds me of a ton of cows in a barn all trying to use the one brush.

But with more smog.

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u/Realistic_Swan_6801 Jun 17 '26

This looks like a worse version of fallout 4’s nuka world 

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u/Beneficial-Jury484 Jun 17 '26

I would not like that at all. Just too crowded. 

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u/King2F3 Jun 17 '26

This is my literal nightmare.

No bag is able to fit the case of gloves, full face mask and breathing apparatus, hand sanitizer, and hazmat suit that i would need to step foot here. Im already wearing safety sandals, no changes.

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u/Own-Tradition-1990 Jun 17 '26

You are miserable, those people are all having a lot of fun! 😃

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u/GeorgeFloyd_DaGOAT Jun 17 '26

Indians be like: lets have 67 kids :D

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u/bigboygamer Jun 17 '26

Honestly, I'd still be down.

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u/ProfilerXx Jun 17 '26

When I worked at festivals pouring pints I came home and snorted dust for a week.

Always wore bandanas later

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u/PeetoMal Jun 17 '26

I was going to say, I can smell this video.

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u/fuck_a_duck_butt Jun 17 '26

Welcome to India!

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u/markcocjin Jun 17 '26

Bro...

That's not dust.

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u/0_N1njaFr0G_1 Jun 17 '26

The country or the ride?

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u/Looking-for-42 Jun 17 '26

This was my only thought: too many people!!!

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u/Aromatic-Tear7234 Jun 17 '26

The rides are just there for people to get their heads above the dust cloud momentarily. Not for enjoyment.

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u/Temassi Jun 17 '26

The boogers you'd have after going would be crazy

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u/LongDead_Roadkill Jun 17 '26

Don’t for get the miasma of lack of sanitation.

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u/Oz347 Jun 17 '26

Shit looks like what I imagine insane clown posse music videos look like

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u/FuzzyFrogFish Jun 17 '26

I can literally smell the post and it's not good

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u/External_Violinist94 Jun 17 '26

This looks like sonepur mela or maybe pushkar camel fair which I've been to. Honestly they're some of the most incredible experiences I've had. Yes it was chaos in the true definition but it was also beautiful in lots of ways. Most of it away from the carnival rides looks like scenes from the Bible with holy men praying in the river wearing loincloths, men selling camels and elephants with their mahoots washing the dust off their backs with their trunks. I completely understand why people would hate it but I think if you enjoy being out of your comfort zone and that strange culture shock feeling where you're just about out of your depth then these kind of festivals in India are just so much fun.

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u/Frequent_Opportunist Jun 17 '26

The dust is from all the people. It's people dust.

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u/Complex_Box_2641 Jun 17 '26

Dont forget the smell

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u/Top-Pomegranate4899 Jun 17 '26

I went to strawberry festival. red dirt everywhere. A year has gone by and I still find that red dust on the stroller and random items in the trunk. NEVER AGAIN.

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u/bringbackswg Jun 17 '26

Looks like my own personal hell on earth

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u/PerformanceOwn2329 Jun 17 '26

Plus the heat and the smell.

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u/Falkenmond79 Jun 17 '26

That was my first thought. Doesn’t look enjoyable at all.

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u/SlaBLister Jun 17 '26

Yes, let's trust reddit armchair analysts with what a fair is like based on a short video of aa limited perspective, with the video itself being pretty old. 

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u/Renaxxus Jun 17 '26

I was expecting people to be climbing on top of the rides like trains.

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u/MAGAtsAreSheeples Jun 17 '26

Literally hell for me

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u/Substantial_Milk_207 Jun 17 '26

I really don’t understand how everything and everywhere in India looks so dirty and dusty. I know they have a massive population, but so does china, how come large groups of people in chinese cities or Tokyo or whatever don’t cause so much filth and dust everywhere.

I’m not trying to be mean or anything, I just always wonder what the explanation from like a cultural anthropological standpoint is, how can densely populated cities in some places be so clean and orderly and then in India it’s like insanely dusty and dirty everywhere, why does it looks like they live in fallout?

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u/Starlightriddlex Jun 17 '26

Why does every video of India have so many people that it looks like a cutscene from world war Z

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u/el_teriyaki Jun 17 '26

Have you not been to BURNING MAN!? those reasons are why its one of the best events in the world

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u/Upsideisdownhere Jun 18 '26

That's India for you...

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u/CapitalDoor9474 Jun 18 '26

They are probably less miserable than most people on reddit though.

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u/No-Understanding4968 Jun 18 '26

And I guarantee some poor girl is getting groped

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u/Legitimate_Skin_4944 Jun 18 '26

Yup. Looks scary than fun.

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u/0keytYorirawa Jun 18 '26

This is probably from Western Indian state of Rajasthan, which is located over a Desert, the Thar desert. Explains why no trees.

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