Exactly 31 years ago, on 20th September 1995, a weird phenomenon started unfolding in temples across India. It was something so big that scientists had to intervene and explain to the masses the scientific cause behind the mystery.
A man in New Delhi went to a Lord Ganesha temple before dawn with a bowl of milk and held a spoonful to the trunk of the idol. To his amazement, the milk on the spoon disappeared. He himself had never experienced anything like that before.
Soon the word spread and people all across Delhi were lining up in front of temples with spoons filled with milk. Many returned claiming the Ganesha idol was really drinking it. The news was so big at the time that it led to a widespread shortage of milk.
But the scientists were still not convinced.
Scientists from the Indian Ministry of Science and Technology decided to decode the mystery themselves. They went to a temple in New Delhi and offered the idol a spoonful of milk mixed with food coloring.
As soon as they offered the milk to the idol, it seemed to disappear. But unlike most onlookers, they had an explanation for what was happening.
They explained it was a combination of surface tension and capillary action. They noted that just as a paper towel pulls up water when placed close to it, the stone idol was pulling the liquid from the spoon in the same way.
When they offered the colored milk by placing the spoon very close to the idol, the liquid was drawn off the spoon and spread in a thin layer across the statue. Since many of the statues were made of porous stone, the milk dried quickly, further strengthening the illusion.
Many scientists also attributed the event to mass hysteria, a situation where if many people expect to see an outcome, they really do start seeing it, even when the cause is something else entirely.
Even after the scientific explanation, many are still convinced that the idol was really drinking milk that day. All it took was some milk and belief to convince an entire country that a miracle was happening.