What ballooney! When ‘alien’ talk took over a Noida village

NOIDA: A humanoid balloon, which looked like a sci-fi character dropping from the sky, spooked many who gaped at it in disbelief before raising the alarm. For some, it was an alien, for others a spy.
And so began a strange day in this Dankaur village, with a frenzy of excitement that eventually deflated just as it was meant to be. Like a balloon.
The gas-filled balloon, which resembled the Iron Man of Marvel Comics, could be seen hovering in the air above Parsaul village on Monday afternoon.It may have been put up as part of some advertisement and travelled all the way to the village after its strings snapped.
For the villagers who had fixed their gaze on the hovering balloon, the mystery deepened when it dropped on the ground and got stuck in a quagmire next to a pond — giving the impression that it had parachuted down from some helicopter. As the wind changed direction, the balloon changed its position too, sometimes standing erect and raising its hands and at other times, dropping flat on the ground.
“We hadn’t seen anything like this before. It looked like some alien from another planet, something we had seen only in the movies. It moved with the air, raised its hands and nodded its head. We got the impression that it had life in it,” said Ramesh, a villager.
Unable to find out what it is, some of the villagers dialled 112 and informed police. Two sub-inspectors from Dankaur police station also rushed to the village, but they, too, could not figure out what the life-like structure was. After much deliberation, the cops tip-toed near the quagmire and realised it was just an air-filled balloon.
Anil Pandey, the SHO of Dankaur police station, said, “The villagers had been spreading false theories. As soon as it was pricked with a stick, it burst and the only thing left was plastic.”