By Ratna Manucha
It all began innocently enough.
‘I’ll have yesterday’s ‘daal makhni’ for lunch,’ remarked Boss Man as he peered shortsightedly into the newspaper.
‘But today is Saturday,’ was my reply.
‘What’s that got to do with what I eat?’ He looked at me from over the top of the paper.
‘One doesn’t eat ‘kaali daal’ on a Saturday.’
‘Or that’s what I think,’ I thought to myself. ‘Eat or cook?’ I’m confused. ‘Anyway, let’s be safe and not eat it altogether.’
‘Since when have you started believing in superstitions?’ Asked Boss Man.
Since now???
‘That’s not superstition,’ I defend myself valiantly.
That’s just what my mother said and her mother before her…
That got me thinking. Am I superstitious? No, not really.
But why do I drink water inadvertently before leaving home and then sit down abruptly on the nearest chair… just for a minute. Why? What is the worst that will happen if I drink water and go out? Apart from me wanting to visit the loo, that is. In fact, it will probably save me from getting a heat stroke.
Maybe it’s a throwback to that bygone era when ‘dahi cheeni’ was forced down my throat before an exam. Did it activate the grey cells?
Or did it just bring me good luck? But then, why didn’t the magic potion do the trick during a Maths exam, or for that matter even Chemistry?
Imagine not having to study ‘because the magic potion would do the trick’!
I’m not superstitious. But black cats give me the heebie jeebies. If a black cat crosses my path I stop and loiter around waiting for someone else to cross before I follow. Mean old me. Wanting ill luck to befall another person. But the question is, is there such a thing as bad luck? Once I refused to move my car even when the lights turned green, just because a black cat had sauntered across the road. It never occurred to me that the poor black cat just crossed the road because it was obviously going somewhere… like me! Much honking and yelling of angry drivers later, I inched forward till one impatient and irate driver overtook me scratching the side of my car in the process. See? Case in point. Wasn’t that bad luck? What if the cat had been of a different colour? Obviously bad luck would have been averted! Duh.
I’m definitely not superstitious. But when my right palm itches I’m secretly grinning with glee as it signifies some money coming into the kitty, but woe betide if my left palm itches, I almost slink into the depths of despair wondering how or to whom I’m going to lose my money. Old wives’ tale? Superstition? Call it what you will… sometimes all it does is add a touch of excitement to a boring ordinary day.
But there’s one superstition that even our government is rapidly doing away with. The practice of adding a rupee to gift money in an envelope. There are no one rupee notes now nor are there any one rupee coins. So there! Though how that illusive one rupee added to one’s coffers beats me.
Does Goddess Lakshmi actually get angry if you sweep the house after sunset? Is she so short tempered? Sweeping is sweeping, morning, noon or night. If She is so fond of cleanliness, She should be happy it’s being done at all, especially in today’s fast paced world where both spouses go off to work…
Imagine the hordes of working professionals seeking to pacify the Goddess just ‘cause their homes are cleaned in the evenings after they get home after a hard day’s work!
What’s that about opening an umbrella inside out bringing bad luck. Obviously it will, as you get drenched in the rain. And walking under a ladder might just bring you bad luck too, if you accidentally knock against it and then the ladder crashes to the ground with the person falling on top of you.
And why for the love of God can’t I cut my nails at night? Or cut my hair on a Tuesday? Why? WHY??
As I said before I’m not superstitious. But when I was little, I would be so excited each time a crow cawed outside my window. That meant we would be having guests! Sadly, there are hardly any crows now so there’s no way of knowing whether guests are descending on us or not! Or is there?
Number 13 is another thing altogether. And if it’s Friday the 13th, then ‘tauba, tauba’! Just stay indoors, keep your fingers crossed and knock on wood that the day passes uneventfully.
Okay, that’s it for now. I’m ready to sign off.
‘ACHOO! ACHOO’! Oops I’ve got to sit down for a minute before I go.
What did you say?
Superstition?
What’s that?
Superstitious?
Who, me??
(Ratna Manucha is an academician, storyteller, poet, columnist and author of fact, fiction and textbooks for children and young adults. She lives, dreams and writes in Dehradun, her happy place).
