Narayana Murthy started watching the cricket match. He saw Indian wickets stumbling against Pakistan. Fed up, he went in and slept. Morning he grabbed the newspaper with a coffee. He was surprised to learn about the Indian victory the previous night. Analytical as he is, tried to find out the reason for this fortune turnaround. He found none. He declared in a press meet, which he attended that day, that because he did not watch the later part of the match, Indian team got all the luck that was required and he declared that India wins every time he stops following the match after a while. No one knew that winning a cricket match was as easy as that!!
My classmate, she always used to stand first in my class, every semester. Once, probably in 6th semester, that day we had received the previous semester’s results. She had topped again. We all started hunting for her to pass our congratulations. She was not to be found anywhere. When enquired with her roommates also we didn’t get to know about her whereabouts. She was seen in the college previous day, but was not present on that result day. It was late in the evening; she came rushing to the college, to see her results on the notice board. I spotted her then, congratulated and asked her about her whereabouts from morning. She told me, “I get weird results when I see it with a different pair of dress. I learnt in the morning about the result being displayed today and also I realised that I had left this dress at home. So rushed home and got it to see the result.” Would the result be different had she been wearing a different set of dress that day?
When Ganguly got out that day, he could not believe India was loosing again on a big final match. Having played excellently throughout the tournament, he was a bit disappointed. He sat on the couch in the player’s lounge thinking about this particular set back for his team. He had his T-shirt removed in a relaxing way. As soon as he removed his shirt, he saw kaif getting a hit to the fence. He sat there itself, in the same posture for next few minutes. Yavraj also started getting runs, both of them playing incredibly well. Someone asked Ganguly to meet a visitor. He refused to get up. He didn’t want to move because had he moved an inch from that place, his team would get unlucky and loose the game out. He refused even to wear the shirt. He remained in the same posture until his team won. He thought he brought good luck to the team by sitting on that couch bare-chested. Wouldn’t have India won had he gone out to meet his visitor or had he worn the T-shirt?
One of my friends bought a particular shirt to be worn for the final round of the interviews at a big company. He was wearing it on that day, but was rejected later by that MNC. Disappointed, he attended another big interview a few days later. He wore the same shirt in that interview as well. But unfortunately he was not selected that too. Next thing he did was to change his business attire and that particular shirt which was bought a few days back was thrown out of his house. And yes, he got a job at the next interview he attended!! This attire change brought him any luck?
I had to call up one of my friends, dialed his number on my mobile, but got connected to a wrong number. The guy who was on the other side of the phone was a fresher giving some interviews it seems. As I got a hint that I was speaking to a stranger, I was getting ready to hang the call. Same time, he said, “Please hold Sir! I’m getting another call.” He put me on hold and started conversing on the other call. Annoyed, I hung it. Soon, 5 minutes later, he called me and said, “Hey! You proved me lucky man. I got the job!! I’ll give you a big party.” And then we became friends. Would he have not got the job, hadn’t I got the wrong connection?
I used a particular pen, gifted by one of my uncles, when I was in school, to write my exams, any exam. I used the same pen for my 10th, II PU, all the eight semesters of my engineering. I cleared all these in flying colours. I was so fond of that pen, for all these reasons. I would take it out of my bag only for the exams. One day after my 8th semester exam, I was displaying it to my friends with an unprofaned pride and was telling them all the stories associated with my little wonder. Then, while handing it to one of them, it fell down and broke. My treasure lost forever. That day was gloomy for me of course; but gloomier, that day was, when I had my GATE exams. I cleared that exam, but not with flying colours which was required in it. I missed my long-served mate that day very badly. Was he to do anything in my GATE exams?
These things are just about a few of the experiences of
superstition I’ve come across. Of course there are loads of such examples, I’m sure.
Are we really DUMB to follow anything so faithfully like these? Or is it just COOL to be following some ritual like these? Or is it an inherent fear in each individual that makes us follow something superstitiously? Or is there anything that makes us US, only if, we follow something special like that?
No answer can be found for these things. We follow something blindly and having a complete faith in that exercise that it’d bring us good LUCK is a mystery that has stood out of unraveling path.
I think superstitions make us disciplined being. We draw a virtual boundary around us with superstitions, if we follow it, be in this boundary, we’ll be contended about our work. If we try outside the box of our superstition and fail at the first effort itself, we start blaming ourselves for going out of our boundary. Isn’t it true practically?
If a hotel has seen more number of suicidal deaths in one particular room, does it have anything to do with it being numbered 13?
This particular theory haunts even the most educated, belonging to any faith, caste, culture. There’s no difference between an atheist and a theist in observing a superstition in individual terms. It changes from one individual to another. A followed superstition may not be same in case of two individuals. Some people just follow what their elders tell them superstitiously, some others don’t listen to their elders, just frame their own superstitions. It is actually a complex psychological construct that determines our superstition levels. And it purely depends on the individual tastes.
Let me here not put my own ideas whether following a superstition is good or not. Let us discuss more about such experiences than debate whether it is good or not. Let’s just share our experiences and have fun.
