Two Sikh men broke a strict religious protocol to save the lives of four drowning young men.
Friends, Inderpal and Kanwaljit Singh, unravelled their turbans and used them as ropes to rescue the stricken individuals after they fell into a canal during a Hindu ceremony.
Inderpal - who can't swim - told NDTV: "I had no time to think and quickly removed my turban and threw at the drowning boys and pulled them in."
A still from mobile phone footage
The men's religion normally dictates their turbans - one of five articles of faith and regarded as a symbol of strength, piety and independence - can only be removed in the privacy of their own home.
Inderpal and Kanwaljit were both sat on an embankment above the canal where hindu devotees had gathered on Sunday to honour the god Ganesh when the incident happened.
Ganesha is an elephant-headed deity widely revered for his wisdom, wealth and ability to destroy obstacles.
Hindus celebrate the god's birthday with a 10-day festival called Ganesh Chaturthi that concludes with the idol immersion ceremony.
Inderpal Singh
Mobile phone footage caught the dramatic moment the men were in the water just down from a gushing waterfall.
The ritual can be a dangerous as evidenced by the deaths of two men on Monday night who were taking part in the ceremony off the coast of Georgia
The men were reportedly trapped on Tybee Island, off the Atlantic coast of Savannah, and were swept away by a high tide.
The rescue is reminiscent of another incident earlier this year when a Sikh man removed his turban to comfort a child in who had been hit by a car in New Zealand.
Harman Singh was in his Auckland home when he heard screeching tyres and ran outside to find five-year-old Daejon Pahia lying in the road.
Singh removed his turban to stem the bleeding from Daejon’s head and helped comfort the boy until an ambulance arrived
The 22-year-old told the newspaper: “I wasn’t thinking about the turban. I was thinking about the accident and I just thought ‘He needs something on his head because he’s bleeding.’ That’s my job to help.
“And I think anyone else would have done the same as me.”