An Indian man in the northern city of Kanpur says glass and empty liquor bottles are a regular part of his diet.

Dashrath, 40, claims he first consumed crushed glass with alcohol in a suicide bid during a fit of depression.

A fisherman by profession, Dashrath says he not only survived the suicide attempt, but realized that he had a taste for glass.

"I have been eating glass for the past fifteen years and I have not had any problems," he said, adding he also eats lead bullets. After convulsing on the ground in a seizure that carried him nearly a block down the street, he stumbled back and added, "I think it is good for me, actually."

But he has some trouble eating thick soda bottles, knives, television tubes and heavy gauge mattress spring coils. The mattress coils give him some grief on the toilet.

Dashrath's mother, who sometimes serves her son glass light bulbs and bottles with his dinner platter of goat shit, says her son appears healthy.

"My son eats glass regularly especially when he is drunk. He has never had any problems after eating glass and we have never had to take him to see the doctor," she said. Local doctors admitted that they would not see him if he tried to get an exam.

"He's just a drunk idiot, and will die soon I am sure of that," said Dr. Aprim Chandrasekhar.

For nearby residents, "glass man," as he is popularly known, is nothing less (or more) than a tourist spectacle.

Visitors to the city regularly stop by Dashrath's fish stall, where he makes a show of bargaining fish prices and chewing glass.

"It is going to be a Golden Graham's day!" said Dashrath.