I am not Superstitious, touchwood!

I still remember when my husband and I were about to head out for a friend’s birthday party. I heard someone sneeze and immediately got out of the car and went to the kitchen to eat some sugar. My husband walked in on me, surprised.

His feline stealthiness took me aback, and I was like a child caught red-handed with her hand inside the sugar box; I jerked my hand back.

“Are you alright? Why do you have sugar just before leaving? We are already getting late!” He looked at me confused.

Guilt dripped in my voice. “It’s a bad omen if someone sneezes before going out. Eating sugar and waiting for 15 minutes will neutralise bad luck.”

The hardcore sceptic scoffed. “What a rot? Does this have any basis, or is it all nonsense?”

“Whether you believe in it or not”, I added quickly, “but that is the truth.”

My husband switched to his lecture mode: “That superstition originated because, in early times, travelling was challenging and time-consuming. If anyone falls sick, it would be difficult for them to manage…” I stalled the torrent of words and sat in the car to go to the party.

As the days passed by, I continued to be intrigued by this conversation. Researching more about superstitions, I chanced upon a book on Indian superstitions and traditions by Akshay Bavda and was amazed at the wealth of superstitious beliefs it recorded. We don’t need to import superstitions; we have enough to last us our lifetimes.

When people go out for something good, they carry charms with them, wear specific clothes, visit places associated with good fortune and use particular numbers, which are all elements of superstition.

Some people spend plenty of money to own a lucky number plate on their cars. A superstitious person may actively avoid number 13, black cats, breaking mirrors, or walking under ladders.

Superstitions explain why many buildings do not have a 13th floor- preferring to label it 12 A, 12 B, 12C or M on the elevator button panels because of concerns about superstitious tenets. Architect Le Corbusier, who designed Chandigarh as India’s first planned city more than 50 years ago, divided it into 60 sectors and refused to have ‘Sector 13’. It is believed that this was primarily because of the superstition that Europeans had around the number.

Varying from Greek and Chinese to Indian and American, all follow some superstition or the other. In cultures around the world, breaking a mirror brings bad luck.

The black cat is considered a bad omen. One avoids looking at black cats in the morning and considers it a bad omen if it crosses your path. Not just in India, but this is a widespread belief in the west too. This superstition came from the Egyptians, who believed that black cats were evil creatures and brought bad luck. In India, black colour is generally associated with Lord Shani. People generally stop if a black cat crosses their path and wait for another person to pass, so that bad luck doesn’t come their way.

Even if you don’t consider yourself a superstitious person, it is imbibed in you right from childhood by looking at the superstitious people around you. You would subconsciously say, “God bless you”, when someone sneezes, realising later that it was a part of superstition. People used to believe a sneeze caused someone to expel their soul out of their body, so “God bless you” was used to protect against the devil snatching the soul. But no more!

The best way to debunk superstitions is to try to learn where they originate from. The best example is the superstition of walking under the ladder. The idea behind it was that walking under the ladder was dangerous as tools can fall down and harm people.

Another example is having a lucky piece of clothing. How illogical it is to wear a lucky black coat to the office at a temperature of 50 degrees. Once you get good news in a specific dress, it doesn’t mean that you will get good news whenever you wear it. When making a choice to wear clothes, rely on your common sense instead of blindly following superstitions.

The idea behind eating curd and sugar before leaving out was based on the fact that curd has a cooling effect on the stomach, and sugar gives instant energy, which makes your work successful. Try to look at the logic behind the superstitions instead of following them blindly. Let’s make a resolution to stop believing in all these superstitions. I am keeping my fingers crossed!