the Thinker

I do not know whether you have similar experiences to narrate or not, but I remember one of my friend's, telling me about an incident which occured to her a few years back.This is her speaking-"A few years back, when I was rushing out of the house as I was already late for a crucial examination (back in school), I sneezed while moving out of the main door.

"Stop!" Said a voice from behind me. I almost jolted due to the impact of the voice. I looked back and saw my grandmother standing with a dead serious expression on her face. I counteracted it with my own frustration. "What? I have to go, I am late for the exam." I shouted back.

"You sneezed just now, it's a bad omen, not an auspicious moment for you to move out of the house, wait for 5 minutes and then move on," she said. I felt like banging my head against the wall. Which century is she residing in? So much of superstition. You would be appalled to know that I never contested further and with a sullen face decided to wait till five minutes. The result- I reached the examination hall late, could not finish my paper." Her narrative ended and left me wondering how auspicious did the 5 minute wait turn out to be.

I won't blame her grandmother, because I have seen young people who are qualified enough, observing similar notions. Superstitions are something probably innate in most of our characters. Sometimes we ourselves prefer to believe in certain superstitions mainly because it may be in accordance to our wish.

There is a popular Bengali superstition (weird as well), that when you are making an a statement, say for example- "I am sure that my boyfriend is cheating me and going around with my friend," and a wall-lizard speaks out ( I am sure most of you might have heard that strange sound they make, they have door-bells like those nowdays, goes 'tic-tic-tic'), the assumption that the person has made might be true afterall.

(So beware the next time when you make such a comment on your 'dear one,' check out that none of those lizards are around). Well, that could have been (I am being fair enough guys therefore am saying 'could have been')just a mere coincidence (incase the lizard has not caught you red-handed).

Another very common one, a black cat crossing the road when we are driving. Our driver would press sudden brakes and all of us are pushed to the front. The guy even if told hundreds of times, won't move ahead.Even if you tell him that "my mother is in the hospital, on her deathbed please move ahead," or that "my girlfriend is going to New York today and shall return only after 3 years, please move ahead or I shall not be able to see her till before she leaves," he shall move only after another vehicle crosses the same road.

The consequence - either the mother must have died, God forbids! Or the girlfriend must have left and handed a note to her friend for the guy saying that she does not want to see his face again. Sad cases both,but waiting for the other vehicle to cross turns out to be a bad omen, don't you guys think so.

Don't worry, I shall not catalogue the entire list of superstitions that I have heard of or I know of. Just one last one which I chose to ignore and unfortunately suffered in return. I was advised not to eat an egg before an exam and I did not listen. So my paper went bad. After that never again did I dare touch an egg, before some interview or exam. Not that I am 'superstitious' but, what's the point taking a risk? Don't you guys agree?

Quite a lot of them are there.. Initially I thought that those stuff happen only in India.. but in my experience Aussies & English are more superstitious.

Ask an Aussie to open an umbrella inside the house and u can see his face go in 8 directions..

similarly 13 with the English. most (not all) of the roads here in UK doesn't have door no. 13 and i know a friend who bought a flat numbered 13 and found it difficult to sell..

I am superstitious to some extent.. I wd normally wear the same dress for all the exams if first one happened to be easier. Invariably, the first one wd be a language paper and wd be an easier one..  

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To put it all in 1 word it is all "BS".

I've argued with a lot of people about all this stupid superstitions.

One of the arguments is very fresh in my memory:

I stepped out from home and my dad said, "Come back 'cause a widow is coming".

I knew the lady and felt very sad.

I asked my dad, ...Dad..will you do this if the lady was your own mother?  

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Hi Chakra,I agree with you, I have heard that people abroad are very superstitious, you must be knowing more about this but I have heard one incident that my friend narrated to me when her father had gone to an english coutryside and forgotten his way back to the lodge. So on his way he found a cemetry, and went inside and saw a small hut where people were smoking, he signalled them from outside the hut through a smallwindow and the folks gave him such a weird look that he ran away. Later his friend told him that he did a good thing to run away as those people would have attacked him thinking that he is a ghost. Can you believe that?  

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Hi Narayan, Its indeed a pity that our superstitions are sometimes so inrooted that we do not care about other people's sentiments.Thats my argument as well. Does following superstitions indeed yield any results?  

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On Narayanan's comment abt not seeing the widow while going out..

Few yrs back, an elderly lady used to rush in whenever she hears me step out for college. Only later on I knew that she did that coz she doesn't want to be a bad omen. To mean that I don't believe in this crap, I made it a point to go inside her house, see her & then leave. Later on, I learnt that even her son doesn't like to face her while going out.. After that incident, whatever lil respect I had for her son vanished in me..

Think how hurt she would be. There is a similar notion abt facing a single brahman while going out. Ridiculous things & cruel too.  

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Yeah. Pretty sad. But I agree with your last sentence. Most of the times we do things because we "don't want to risk it". Sometimes womthings are so important that one doesn't really gamble with them, and it is this that feeds superstition. Interesting post. BTW, am reading about the stream of consciousness thing. Hmmm. I see where you got the idea... :-)  

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Hello Amrita,
A very suggestive post... Being from the other side of the world, I can tell you superstitions run wild in all the corners of this big, crazy planet...
Nice point the one you make about hurting other people feelings. However, superstitions are old time long beliefs which, I suppose, will only fade out progressively as time keeps moving...
The black cat one is probably a classic everywhere...
About weird ones, whenever I go out with my girlfriend, if I happen to forget something home and come back to pick it up, she makes run three times around a chair before going out again (she says it's to scare bad omen of a failing departure... I don't understand it, but I love her anyway, so there you have me running around the chairs)...

Personally, I don't take all this very seriously, but I do prefer supestitions used to stir up our own confidence...  

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Sorry folks, could not visit my blog so long, was burdened with assignments and did not have time to breath, the weekend again would be a hectic one would not be able to check my blog ao made it a point to come today.  

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I am pleased to know that all of you share similar opinions with me as far as the topic of superstitions go.

Chakra, Narayanan- I really admire and respect both of you for sticking to your beliefs and not getting swayed by superstitions, it is indeed silly that a widow should cause an ill omen. I agree with Narayanan when he says that it could have been our own mother. In fact the incident narrated by Chakra proved the fact that people can be so blinded by superstitions that they can be indifferent to their own mother.Its a shame.

Hi Eroteme, its true that most of us till now believe in superstitions because we do not want to take risks. Sad.But it would be really good if we follow them for trivial things like exams and not eating eggs before a paper rather than hurting someone. Byways, tell me more about what you learnt about the stream of consciousness technique.

Mr.Gonsings, thanx for dropping by. Its sweet to know what you do to appease your girlfriend, but don't you think its a pity that in the 21st century when we are advancing so much and prefer being called "modern" we still adhere to such absurd notions which do not have a logic behind them? Well, I shall not claim that I follow my rationale all the time- heard that "egg story?" I too need to change some of the notions I have been following so long. But its hard to change after the kind of experiences one has.  

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Superstition is to religion what astrology is to astronomy; the mad daughter of a wise mother. - Voltaire

Surprisingly several superstitions are based on some facts which we have lost over a period of time. If only we redirect some of the research efforts into it............

- Dheepak Ra  

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Hi Deepak, welcome to my blog, nice quote in the beginning. I would definitely like to know which facts are you referring to..  

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Hi Amrita

First example to pass my mind is the smallpox vaccination.

References:
1) Pollack, Kurt. 1968. The Healers, the Doctor, then and now. English Edition.
Dharampal. 2000. Indian Science and Technology in the Eighteen Century. 2) An Account of the manner of inoculating for the Smallpox in the East Indies. Mapusa, Goa: Other India Press., Vol 1.

In Bengal, smallpox vaccination was carried out by using the pus from cowpox. This was considered as superstition and even banned by Britishers. It wasnt until Jener rediscovered it, that this was considered as acceptable.

Similarly there are several superstitions in practise. However a fraction of it might have some scientific reason behind it which we are not aware of.

No I am not in favor of superstition. I am a typical rationalist whom you bump into every other day.

Its just that as a guy from R&D, my thinking is more oriented towards different oppurtunities that exist for research. And I think a tiny minority of the superstition if proved can bring lot of IP and revenue for India.

- Dheepak Ra  

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Hi Deepak,
Thanks for your opinion and the mention to those facts you stated just now.I did not know about them,therefore that adds to my information kitty.  

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