For three days beginning on 21 September 1995, an extraordinary series of stories appeared in the news, about the elephant-headed god Ganesh. They began in Bombay, but were soon coming in from Leicester, Toronto, Chicago, and Edison, New Jersey. Offerings of milk to the deity in Bombay were disappearing before the eyes of worshippers, according to news reports. News photographs depicted spoonfuls of milk underneath the divine proboscis, which wondrously came to life before the temptation of devotees' offerings. Corporate executives and businessmen were quoted testifying to the authenticity of the miracle, and the price of milk shot up in Bombay and in much of Maharashtra, from fifteen to forty rupees a liter and more, becoming unavailable in many places. Stories began to be reported from London, Washington, D.C., and New York, of lactophilic Ganesh idols placated by transnational throngs of milk-bearing supplicants. Subsequent reports included interviews with scientists declaring that the phenomenon was merely an instance of capillary action, as liquid was drawn up along tiny surface fissures. The disclosure may have interrupted the deity's feeding frenzy, although the news cycle for freak events would not have lasted much longer than a few days in any case.

That there were individuals across the globe, prepared for whatever reason to attribute supernatural significance to the minor movements of matter was hardly novel.