Hi
In our country, especially in schools, one punishment is very dehumanising and, sorry to say, very common, too. That is: the victim is asked to hold his ears through his legs. We call at MURGA BANANA.
Is anyone aware of any term in English for this punishment?
I would be grateful,
Tom
I can’t imagine what it looks like, so I can’t give you a term (if we have one).
:shock:
Sounds like it must be some sort of uncomfortable “yoga” position where someone puts his head between his legs and has to hold it there — assumedly while standing.
:shock:
This guy is supposed to hold his ears through his legs.
telegraphindia.com/1060505/i … curfew.jpg
Tom
Hi Tom
I didn’t understand it in 2006, and I still don’t understand it in 2008.
I can’t think of anything that might be the same or similar here.
.
I was particularly perturbed by the poster who held his servant by the ear “while watching cricket on TV”.
Let us hope there were no appeals for lbw.
MrP
Murga banana is a Hindi/Urdu phrase that literally means “make sb a rooster”. (I have used rooster instead of the exact word for obvious reasons :-))
This is the punishment teachers give their students for several reasons, like not turning in the homework on time, not answering a question or simply making noise in the class.
Students are made to squat, pass their hands from under the thighs and hold their ears. It’s a little complicated 
Things have changed in India though. I am not sure if such things are still there in Pakistan.
I don’t think there is any asana like this in Yoga, but as Amy suggested we can incorporate it and probably call it Murgasan.
In the US where people are not supposed to spank their own mischievous children, punishment such as this may sound a bit cruel.
Probably, teachers of India believed in the notion that fear is the best motivator and thought students could be corrected if fear was instilled in them through such weird ways of punishment.
We have this too in Malaysia and we call it Ketuk Ketampi or Tok Ketampi. In Malaysian English it’s “ear squat”.
Here’s a part of the film where it became publicly popular.
jp.youtube.com/watch?v=ZyN2GuSl0Mw
In the video you can see the master is punishing the cook and the driver. In this film, the two is always fooling around and every time they made a mistake they had to do the ear squat.
I don’t know where it originated but my guess is, from the Indian culture. During this time (1950s), all Malay films were directed or produced by Indian filmmakers, and my guess also is, these Indian directors/producers were not Malayan/Malaysian born.
One more special feature these Malay films has is, they have a lot of singing and dancing, very much like the Bollywood.
I have also been asked to ear squat at camps, even when I was already attending secondary school. I don’t see the difference with doing push ups, in the military practice where an officer punishes his subordinates. Yes, I think it’s something similar to that.
It’s good for the thighs and the butt anyway.
