The village, Panchal arranges a rural festival ‘Gajon’ every last week of the Bengali calendar year. It is one of the main attractions of rural culture. In this festival villagers worship lord Shiva. To pacify Hindu lord Shiva the destroyer they perform an inhuman and ruthless custom namely ; Baan-forh and Charhak

What is Baan-forh? A six millimeter diameter pointed metal rod is pierced through the tongue and cheek of the performer. In this condition they dance and celebrate through the night. Sometimes performer pierces the Baan on his skin - it may be in abdomen, chest, neck, or any other part of the human body. In case of Charhak, the performer is hung from a very tall post with the help of two or more metal hooks pierced through the skin of the back. Then the person is rotated at high speed. People enjoy and celebrate this kind of crude and gruesome religious practice of inflicting pain on one’s own body. It is watched and applauded by thousands-some time lakhs who gather at the fair-ground. By the way, the performers all are from tribal classes, none from the upper classes. The worship management committee members of this mela are all from upper classes and they are the real conductors of this display. The secretary of the mela committee is also the LCS of ruling party CPI (M).

A problem surfaced when some of villagers protested against this superstition. A man named Shubhasis Chirakalyan Patra, a former Army doctor, also a founder of the local NGO. ‘Bigyan O Samaj’ protested two years ago. He was threatened by the managing committee but this incident helped him. He got the support of one section of the villagers. This year the ‘Science and Rationalists Association of India’s Bankura district branch hit the road with them to protest against this superstition. The member of the organization thinks that they shall over come this problem by their anti-superstitions stance.