My Set Of Superstitions

Are you superstitious?

Oh yes!

Everybody is entitled to his/her quota of superstitions, prejudices and biases.

My sister never divulges her plans lest they fail. “Nazar lag jaati hai.” She says.  I am annoyed, “How can you even think I will eye you ?”  She repeats, “No, apni Nazar lag jaati hai.” I may eye my own project.

Some professions have their built-in superstitions.

A cabbie will always stop, wait a few seconds, reverse and then drive ahead if a cat crosses the road. If it’s a black one –  a  sure shot premonitory signal of danger lying  ahead !! 🙀

A veggie seller will never part with even one potato without immediate payment. It’s bauni time. They also seek the customer with whom the bauni (the first transaction of the day) proves to be the most profitable.

Once a colleague drove over a puppy. I was with him.  Distraught, I said, “How could you ?” “I couldn’t just cross lanes on a highway,” His justification. From thereon life was one big nightmare for me.

Superstitions have their own logic. If you are hurting someone you are to incur that innocent creature’s haai (literally sigh)  or curse of being hurt, in turn.

My driver, once rammed the brakes hard in the middle of a speeding highway to save a snake. For some, snake is naag devta or God reincarnate and should not be hurt. “Paap lag jata hai.” You incur His wrath. Though he himself was so wrathful that it was hard to imagine anybody taking panga (messing up) with him.

I am superstitious about being rude and not (monetarily) helping the eunuchs on road. My logic : They are also humans. They need a source of income. There is no policy of rehabilitating them into the mainstream. Also, enraging them is calling for trouble. It is generally believed that whatever they say come true. I have experienced that personally.

Once I was on a hard to accomplish mission. At a traffic isle I asked an eunuch, ” Bolo mera kaam ho jayega.” (Say my work will get done!). She showered me with her blessings. Needless to say –  mission got accomplished.

We had just shifted to a rented flat near my sister’s hoping to get our own. Next morning a bunch of eunuchs came to bless us. They thought it was my own. I said no, it wasn’t. They said to give them a token sum for bauni. One of them was thirsty. I gave her water to drink. Before leaving, the elder of the group said,” Hope you get yours soon.”  Rest is history.

And then there are ‘smaller ones”. Like once you sneeze stepping out, you are required to wait a few seconds and restart to ward off all the ills awaiting your on your way….:-)

Seriously 😣

In short, being educated has nothing to do with superstition. Some are inherited or acquired in the journey of life. And some are in-built into the cultural fabric. You just have to pick up your pet ones.

As long as your superstitions are not discriminatory, licentious and detrimental to your fellow beings and society, it’s ok to nurture a few. These may have their own rationale like stopping after a sneeze is to give some time to collect yourself before hurrying on. Stopping when you see a cat or snake on road is to save lives. Helping out those who are socially ostracized.

Should we actually call them superstitions?

Of course, extreme of anything is not good and one must argue with one’s own self whether following a particular thought process liberates or regresses, biases or benefits, constrains or corroborates with what the ever-expanding Universe wants of you.

Rest should be put to rest.

To my incredulity, Pinterest taught me more about superstitions than I was aware of.