Murshidabad teen Iqbal Sheikh spends days in water, astonishing locals

There is a 16-year-old boy named Iqbal who lives in a town called Beldanga in Murshidabad.

For almost five years, he has been floating in ponds for many days at a time.

Sometimes he stays in the water for four or five days, and sometimes even seven days.

He does this because he feels a burning feeling on his body when he leaves the water.

Iqbal thinks a magical spirit, like a jinn or a fairy, is the reason for this.

While he is in the water, people give him flattened rice and biscuits to eat.

Being wet all the time has made the skin on his hands and feet turn white, and it also gives him colds and coughs.

His family cannot pay for a private hospital, so local people are trying to arrange treatment for him.

Every day, school children and neighbors gather at the pond to watch him, and the area looks almost like a fairground.

Nobody has been able to keep Iqbal out of the water so far.