How I became superstitious

Can I try out my new shoes today ? No, its a Tuesday, said my mother. I whined and blabbered nonsense about how she needed to stop being superstitious and ” change with times” ,”adopt a modern way of looking at things in life”and stop giving unnecessary attention to the futile , immaterial,  baseless superstitions passed on from generations. She paid no heed to my words and never let me go shopping, open something new or start anything afresh on Tuesday for all of my life , till I was in her abode. Then i went flying out and started doing things as and when I pleased, and my bad luck of sorts began.

I burnt a new shirt I bought on a Tuesday, I lost my earphones I opened on a Tuesday and many such small incidents that I brushed off as one off coincidences. I was convinced my mother was fooling me and looking for reasons not to take me shopping on at least one day of the week

Another instance where my mother was overly superstitious was ”  evoking the evil spirit”. If  I happened to receive compliments about whatsoever; clothes to marks to anything at all concerning ME , she would take a fistful of rock salt and circle it around my body 7 times and then flush it. Also, i had to keep mum during this entire “ritual”. I found it absolutely hideous and ridiculed her time and again. Apparently, once after a dance performance she failed to do this and I fell sick , hence probing her to do it EVERY single time. I read up about this ludicrous ritual and learnt that a lot of people believe in this as rock salt has the powers to extract negative energy from ones body. I still found all this corny.

Now, let me go to the reason why all this dawned upon me today. My phone cover arrived , and I couldn’t stop fussing over it hence ” evoking the evil spirit”. Adding onto my obsession, a few of my friends complimented it too , so,  all in all the evil spirit was running about freely (I don’t know how else to explain this).

However , my joy was short lived. My phone fell down and the screen shattered. My heart chipped too.

It was a Tuesday. Compliments were all over the place.

That’s what these superstitions do to you. In certain one off incidents, they convince you that they are legit. Though I have been denying all the other incidents till now, this one seems too hard a coincidence. I  sure will  not circle salt around anything I receive compliments for, but I will be cautious about my belongings that receive praise. And I sure will not open anything new on a Tuesday. Why risk it? Wait for a day maybe?

I sound silly right? A 21 year old girl doing an MBA living in the 21st century linking carelessness to superstitious beliefs. As silly as  I feel for succumbing to these inane superstitions,maybe there is a reason it all started , maybe there is a reason people still  follow it. Maybe a streak of bad luck in a certain pattern intrigued people to formulate such beliefs. Maybe its nothing, or maybe its just my fate . Or maybe, it is because I ate non veg on Ganesh Chathurthi ! Whatever it is, I am not buying/ opening/ starting  anything dear to me on a Tuesday. PERIOD

P S: Don’t judge me.

 

 

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