How I Became Superstitious

How I Became Superstitious

For me believing in various cults and age-old myths was very hard. I laughed at people seeing them hop over an open slit lemon or changing their route after spotting a black cat. Women in my locality used to weave stories of someone getting possessed by an evil spirit and getting treated by a tantric. In my own house I was refrained from going out during a solar/lunar eclipse. But the rebel in me never followed such rules. It was hard for me to accept that we are the same Indians that gave zero to the world but still fear eclipses.

I got married at a decent age. But to my horror, my wife was too ritualistic and followed many customs that I hated. She had fasted and prayed in front of a banana tree to get a good husband. We had little altercations in beginning as I made fun of her and she took me for an atheist. But, no I wasn’t an atheist. I just prayed rarely and hated these superstitious customs. After few months my wife got pregnant. The first thing I did after getting the pregnancy confirmed was going to a temple and breaking a coconut. Was I getting superstitious? No it was just a custom, to show my gratitude to the almighty. Sometime later my wife gave birth to a sweet baby girl and I did the coconut-breaking thing again. All this while my wife was happy to see me do things that she always wanted me to do.

Another few months passed by and things gradually started to change around me. I was doing well on the job front, had a descent salary and most importantly was content with life. People said that this was due to my daughter’s good luck. I believed that too. For many days we were looking for a good name for my daughter. I thought of calling her Shreya, another name for Goddess Lakshmi, the deity of wealth. Was I getting too superstitious over here again? No, I wasn’t. I hated people giving god and goddesses name to kids. They were too old fashioned. But I myself christened my daughter after a goddess. Consoling myself I thought, “So what if I named her after a goddess. She brought me good luck and the name (Shreya) was cute as well.”

One day when I arrived home Shreya had high fever. She was just few months old and I was tensed about her health. I took her to a doctor along with my wife. She was diagnosed with throat infection and high fever. Doctor gave us the right medicines for her as well. But despite the medicines Shreya remained feverish and couldn’t sleep the whole night. Next day again she had fever. My mother-in-law called in the evening and asked my wife to do a nazar for Shreya. Nazar is a cult-act that is performed to negate the ill-effect casted by someone’s evil eye or intentions. I hated this stupid ritual. But for the sake of my daughter’s health agreed to cooperate with my wife. My wife placed a cotton wick dipped in mustard oil on a spoon. I burnt the tip of the wick and a small flame appeared on the top of the spoon. She swayed the spoon anti-clockwise around Shreya’s body. Then she took the burning wick and kept it on a tap in the bathroom. As soon as she did that the flame got larger and mustard oil started dipping down. My wife spitted at the burning wick and doused the flame with her slipper. “Now there is no evil eye on our daughter,” she said happily.

Though I disgusted the whole act but this time I was part of it. Yes, I became superstitious. I was desperate to see my daughter healthy again. That’s why I became superstitious. Then I thought, “may be my parents, their parents and even parents world over are superstitious because they care for their loved ones. Yes, may be these cult customs are meant satisfy our beliefs that something other than medical science is there to cure people. Or maybe it is just about believing and believing from heart.” Next day my daughter was in her usual playful mood with no sign of fever. “Didn’t I tell you these things (nazar) always work,” my wife said. Though it can be the affect of the medicines on my daughter, but this time I wanted to believe what my wife believed in. Yes, I am happily superstitious!

Vikas Sharda