Gopal Hadar is an Indian man who was badly malnourished as a child, which led to a hormone imbalance that left him emaciated all his life. His career has been covering his body in charcoal in order to look like a living skeleton and travel from town to town, pretending to be a ghost and scaring children as a sort of precautionary entertainer. Most of the money he earns he spends on hemp, which he is "addicted" to smoking.
"Wherever I go children call me 'Uncle Ghost' and peep at me through windows," a smiling Haldar said. "Women and children are even scared of going out at night in case they meet me."
His friend Sunil Chakraborty helps him perform on candle-lit stages in Sunderban villages yet to be reached by electricity and where people prefer to confine themselves in their homes after sundown.
He says it takes him only 10 to 15 minutes to do his makeup and transform his emaciated self into a ghost-like creature — mainly by painting his sunken face, protruding ribs and skeletal limbs with soot.
(Thanks, Alex!)
