Hindu youth creates a unique ‘mirror’ Bible for the Pope

Guwahati – A Hindu youth in Assam has created a unique Bible for the Pope – one that is written in inverse and could be read properly only through a “mirror.”

Uttam Das, 29, had handed over his unique creation to Assam state's Archbishop Thomas Menamparampil with a request that it be presented to the Pope Benedict XVI as a Christmas gift.

"I am amazed and bewildered to see this Bible copied in a different style. I don't know how it is going to benefit, but then he has done something unique," the archbishop said.

Archbishop Menamparampil is likely to carry the Bible, for which a reader needs the help of a mirror, sometime in January to the Vatican and present it to the Pope.

"It is something really bizarre, but one must appreciate the skill of the man who tried this phenomenal exercise of writing the Bible in an inverse script," said Allan Brooks, a Roman Catholic Church leader in the Assam capital, Guwahati.

According to Das the Bible he created in the "mirror language" is the first of its kind and he “started writing the Bible inversely soon after the new Pope took over” in April last year.”

Shy of the media attention that he was getting, Das said that he had devoted 10 to 12 hours daily on the task and “simply want this Bible to be kept in the library in the Vatican.”

“I am not for any prize or money and I don't know why I chose to copy the Bible," he said.

The scripture was put on display at the Archbishop's House in Guwahati, where scores of curious devotees used Christmas Day to view it.

Das began his strange hobby of writing inversely when he was a child.

"I don't know how it all happened. Initially I required a mirror in front of me to practice this art, but now I have mastered this special writing skill without any help," AFP has quoted him as saying.

Das, who comes from Silapathar village in Assam, has several "mirror–language" books to his credit.

He can write inversely in English, Assamese, Bengali and Hindi with the same speed as someone writing the regular way.

Das now plans to copy the Hindu holy book, the Bhagavada Gita, and the Muslim scripture, the Koran, in his unique style.