Stealthily i tip-toed my way into the kitchen not quite bothering to turn on the lights..I started hunting the shelves.God i found what i was looking for .There it was lying right under my nose ,being illuminated under the moon-light falling through the open windows.The steel blade was glinting and i clutched the handle and crept back to the living room.Sounds like another rip off from a hollywood flick huh?? lol i have been watching a lot of them recently ..My mom was waiting at the dining table as i silently crept upto her the knife pointed at her.Suddenly she screamed," put the knife down after striking the blade edge on the ground".."Oh mom ,i am not a murderer what's wrong with you ?".." Do what i say if u dont want me to be stabbed by anyone in the near future" she replied in a hushed tone..Confused i was,nevertheless i did what my mom instructed me to.If you have been following me so far,then you will understand what i am ranting about.In case you dont,well its our personal beliefs and superstitions,some of which can evoke instantaneous laughter from a skeptic huh...
Hailing from a conservative south indian family,i am rather very much habituated to these beliefs that questioning its rationale has invited a stern look and twitching of the eyebrows from my elders.Well time and again my row with them have just fallen short of me being branded as a rebel ...lol..I recollect an incident which happened a few years ago ,when my late grandma visited us.It was evening time and i was lazing around sitting on the couch.Suddenly my grandma shouted " Get up from there.dont sit on the pillow.it will bring misfortune to the family" ..Dumbstruck..My 15 year old mind wondered " So am i really sitting on a potential time bomb??"..As if this wasnt enough, there was more to come..A few hour later i asked my younger brother to join me for a game of cards."velakkathenapinna cards game vilayada porela" She asked me in her malayalam accent.I was puzzled." Why i am going to be indoors only???" However my mom intervened and an altercation was prevented.Later i asked my mom the reason and she came up with a hardly-convincing answer "Those days in villages people did blah blah..." .My mind was totally dumbfounded that a simple card game was subject to so much talk..
Speaking of beliefs and superstitions i am reminded of a rib-tickling comdey scene from a tamil movie starring vivek.The scene was framed like this Vivek and his onscreen dad were seated with an empty plate each infront of them .Vivek's mother would stride outdoors with a plate of rice in her hands.Stopping her Vivek would debrief her where she is heading towards.Her reply would be that she is going to feed the crow before serving them.Spontaneously he would retort ," then motta madila kaayapotta vetthala kaakka kotha vantha yen amma thoratharenga????".....
Perhaps the most common superstition one would have encountered is that of a black cat crossing one's path would bring in bad luck in our chore..Now the poor cat,she is hurriedly in
pursuit of her prey or maybe she is scampering for shelter from her predators...God only knows what..Then there is this practise common among many of us to insist that we are not inquired of our destination,when we are ready to hit the road..Some go to the extent of changing their attire and gulp down a tumbler of water before restarting their journey!!!! Now speaking of attire and costumes , there are strict dress-codes for certain family occasions which contend that certain colors be shunned.For instance black color is a strict no-no for certain occasions like the birth of a new year or some puja at home.I have always felt comfortable in a black T-shirt and often reasoned with my parents contending my claim.
Incase you have been scrolling down reading every view of mine under the impression i am a skeptic,then its never too late now to change it.Well i am not.Just like these people i have alluded about, i have had my own share of well yeah stupid beliefs if u may address it that way..I am willing to bet that nearly everyone of us would have at some point of time had this notion of a certain pen being lucky or a attiring a particular shirt could garner good fortune.When questioned about the reason behind our action, the only conscientious answer is that we get a certain level of personal satisfaction by doing this.My lucky blue shirt wont fetch me a job, but attiring it boosts up my confidence.Well i just leave it to you to decide but the bottomline is "WE ARE LIKE THIS ONLY".
Hailing from a conservative south indian family,i am rather very much habituated to these beliefs that questioning its rationale has invited a stern look and twitching of the eyebrows from my elders.Well time and again my row with them have just fallen short of me being branded as a rebel ...lol..I recollect an incident which happened a few years ago ,when my late grandma visited us.It was evening time and i was lazing around sitting on the couch.Suddenly my grandma shouted " Get up from there.dont sit on the pillow.it will bring misfortune to the family" ..Dumbstruck..My 15 year old mind wondered " So am i really sitting on a potential time bomb??"..As if this wasnt enough, there was more to come..A few hour later i asked my younger brother to join me for a game of cards."velakkathenapinna cards game vilayada porela" She asked me in her malayalam accent.I was puzzled." Why i am going to be indoors only???" However my mom intervened and an altercation was prevented.Later i asked my mom the reason and she came up with a hardly-convincing answer "Those days in villages people did blah blah..." .My mind was totally dumbfounded that a simple card game was subject to so much talk..
Speaking of beliefs and superstitions i am reminded of a rib-tickling comdey scene from a tamil movie starring vivek.The scene was framed like this Vivek and his onscreen dad were seated with an empty plate each infront of them .Vivek's mother would stride outdoors with a plate of rice in her hands.Stopping her Vivek would debrief her where she is heading towards.Her reply would be that she is going to feed the crow before serving them.Spontaneously he would retort ," then motta madila kaayapotta vetthala kaakka kotha vantha yen amma thoratharenga????".....
Perhaps the most common superstition one would have encountered is that of a black cat crossing one's path would bring in bad luck in our chore..Now the poor cat,she is hurriedly in
pursuit of her prey or maybe she is scampering for shelter from her predators...God only knows what..Then there is this practise common among many of us to insist that we are not inquired of our destination,when we are ready to hit the road..Some go to the extent of changing their attire and gulp down a tumbler of water before restarting their journey!!!! Now speaking of attire and costumes , there are strict dress-codes for certain family occasions which contend that certain colors be shunned.For instance black color is a strict no-no for certain occasions like the birth of a new year or some puja at home.I have always felt comfortable in a black T-shirt and often reasoned with my parents contending my claim.
Incase you have been scrolling down reading every view of mine under the impression i am a skeptic,then its never too late now to change it.Well i am not.Just like these people i have alluded about, i have had my own share of well yeah stupid beliefs if u may address it that way..I am willing to bet that nearly everyone of us would have at some point of time had this notion of a certain pen being lucky or a attiring a particular shirt could garner good fortune.When questioned about the reason behind our action, the only conscientious answer is that we get a certain level of personal satisfaction by doing this.My lucky blue shirt wont fetch me a job, but attiring it boosts up my confidence.Well i just leave it to you to decide but the bottomline is "WE ARE LIKE THIS ONLY".
7 comments:
well .i must say.a gud start..and an interestin topic...and an apt caption..and ya "we are like this only" :)lol ...sharan
well wat he says is still happ in many of our lifes....esp me!
im against these useless superstitions!....and always arguein with my mom....lol!
well atleast we gotta make our present generation diff from ours....lets be ourselves:-)
its all people's beleif da........ i am not totally against these facts......but some have scientific proof behind it and the ones which dont have, we say it as superstition......lets wait and see if they have some scientific background.........its pretty early to jump into the fact that all facts said by our elders r superstitious....
@ vignesh i m not saying everything is blatant and baseless but i m pointing out instances frm my life..certain cases are really stupid da..
and if everyone starts foloing superstitions srsly, then cab drivers are going to have a very hard time!!
hey!
totally agree with you..plus..its not just us indians..its pretty common amongst the westerners too..remember the term "lucky charm" :P
no matter how much we try to shun these things, its so bloody ingrained within us that we do succumb to them every now and then..nice post!
welcome to bloggerartti! :)
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