Silly Notions

Yesterday was a usual day at work. I boarded the bus back home at my regular timing and reached my stop quite happily. Sometimes when you are being squashed between people and traffic adds to your misery, you tend to get sad. Well, it didn’t happen yesterday.

There’s a small walk from the stop to my place (some call it a long walk, I guess it depends!). While walking back, I had my earphones plugged-in with music playing at 70% volume. Just like it routinely is, every day.

Source - Whoa.in

All of a sudden, my eyes picked a stubby black kitten on the left side of the road. In a flash, it went to the other side. The “known fiend” had crossed my path! Sadly, there’s no book which compares the efficacy of the evil powers of cats and kittens. I am assuming they are equally powerful.

I am not someone who’d wait for someone else to pass such a scenario. I kept walking. I must admit, the cat thing was still in my head. Computational scientists estimate human storage capacity to be around 2.5 Petabytes (enough to store 3 million hours of TV shows). The little cat could easily fit in.

In the evening, I did everything as I would normally do and slept. When I woke up today, it was pretty late. I didn’t hear my alarm. Don’t know if kitten’s are less powerful than cats to have such minor after-effects. Why would the kitten be interested in my alarm? It is probably busy searching for food somewhere right now.

This is the thing about superstitions. We may or may not believe in them, but they still occupy space in the back of our heads. This is just one of the few cases we witness in our day-to-day lives. One among the less horrific ones that exist. Sadly, even in the modern era, heinous crimes like killing (“sacrificing”) and what not are being committed in the name of superstition.

Whenever someone asks me if I am superstitious, I nod in agreement. I am superstitious but my understanding of it, is a little different. I think if anything we believe in, gives us strength, doesn’t harm anyone or hinder anything for anyone, we can actually keep believing it. If you think you would be able to impress your date in your lucky shirt, wear it! :p At the least, it will give you confidence. Just don’t ask others to do the same. Let them wear what they want. :p

Getting haircuts in the evening has always been what my mother constantly nagged me to not do. I have stopped listening to her now. This superstition was probably established when there was no electricity. Serrated Scissors operating near one’s own head in dark? Who wants that?

Anyway, I have some strange ones of my own. I watch  all of Indian team’s matches with Hindi commentary. My bank accounts have “motivational passwords” – motivational quotes as passwords :p .

Sounds crazy, but that’s what superstitions are! Crazy beliefs!