Who is one of the greatest villains of all time in human history? The vile creature in question occupies space with the greatest dictators, crooks and criminals! The surprising answer is ‘The black cat’ or as we say in hindi, kaali billi! Think about it, right from grown ups to children, from tough men to wimps, all shudder and shiver in fear at the mere thought of this creature ever crossing their paths! Never before has a living being been more maligned or its character been assassinated in this manner by any other superstition! Hence this occupies top spot in my list of ‘Super Superstitions!’
I will now move on to the next superstition that is a regular feature outside most houses in India! A Nimbu and mirchis strung up outside the door to ward off the evil eye! This one is relatively less aggressive and doesn’t harm the reputation of anyone in particular! At the most it reduces the amount of Nimbu paani that can be made on that particular day at home!
Early Christians believed that any ladder that was leaning formed a triangle, with the wall and ground being the other two sides. This triangle supposedly represented the Holy Trinity, and walking through it violated it: a religious faux-pas rendering you a devil. As you can imagine, such a devil label was not going to improve your life, hence bringing you bad fortune. Hence the superstition of ‘not walking under a ladder’ came into being!
Many a times we make up our own things. Specially while watching sports, cricket to be more specific. Things like ‘I shouldn’t change the channel or Sachin may get out.’ Or u shout at a friend, ‘Hey don’t get up from that chair, every time u leave your chair the opposition scores a boundary.’
{{/usCountry}}Many a times we make up our own things. Specially while watching sports, cricket to be more specific. Things like ‘I shouldn’t change the channel or Sachin may get out.’ Or u shout at a friend, ‘Hey don’t get up from that chair, every time u leave your chair the opposition scores a boundary.’
{{/usCountry}}One of my favourite superstitions, which most of us adhere to subconsciously in our daily lives is ‘touchwood!’ The amount of times wood gets felt up by us human beings could very well be a new Guinness record! Of course if wood had life and could speak, we could all be sued for sexual harassment!
The list of superstitions is never ending and each person believes in what he/she wants to believe! If you ask me, these are all delightful old wives’ tales thought up by…well bored old wives who needed something to spice up their days! I pride myself on being way more pragmatic and intelligent to fall for them! ‘Touchwood’, I am unaffected by them.
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