Anupam- The Dreamer

Since our childhood, we have heard so many superstitions from our elders and so many times, that at one point of time in our childhood they all seemed to be true. One such was this- “If the cat crosses your path, then it is a bad omen that something disastrous will happen to you soon. And if it crosses, then immediately you must stop and take two steps backward and remember the God for bestowing mercy!”. What a bizarre logic and a plain BS we were taught about this thing. I have seen many people who have suddenly hit brakes of their cars on spotting a cat on the road! How can a poor cat crossing your path bring bad omen? And why only cat? Why not dog, or a rabbit, or a rat, or a snake? It might be that some incident may have happened with some individual just after some random cat crossed his/her path centuries ago, that he/she came to associate the bad outcome with the poor cat! And then he/she must have propagated this thing among people, who throwing all the reasoning to dustbin came to believe exactly that and even taught coming generations the same thing.

This is not to say that all the things/traditions/superstitions propagated by our ancestors are inherently irrational/incorrect/bizarre/absurd. But as soon as we snap the linkage between the incident and our ability to reason, think and analyse, it is only then the path to our moral and intellectual degradation begins. For example, it was said that one should not cut the nails after evening time. One can think of the reason that in earlier times when there was no electricity, cutting nails in the dark could hurt someone. That logic was acceptable during that time, but in the modern era, if one is cutting nails under the light, then how on earth can someone possibly cut himself/herself is out of my understanding. Earlier, it was believed that one shouldn’t have curd at night. That was perfectly logical thing as it was proven by experience and ancient wisdom. Even now also, it has been proven scientifically that having curd at night can result into more cough buildup. So, this was not a superstition rather a proven health advice.

However, some rituals/superstitions were associated with religion, so that one cannot and one should not question such absurd and immoral things. Like the practise of witchcraft (डाकन) was so prominent in some areas that even the well-educated people fell prey to that. A particular lady in a village was assigned the tag of being a “डाकन” and the whole village was advised to stay away from her and even abhorred her. Still in some areas, you can find this practise. There could be some mental health issue with a lady/gentleman, still that doesn’t mean that you label that person as a witch or a “shaitan”. Similarly, the practise of not cutting hair on some particular days is still widespread in our country. Till date, I haven’t been able to decipher/find out the reasoning behind this superstition. What will happen if someone goes for a haircut on such days of the week? Does God get angry with such person? Or he/she earns the curse of others? Or it is just a bad omen, whatsoever? Does that mean that people who are going for a haircut on those days in India, or elsewhere in the world, are worse off? Or this is just a devotion to some particular God? But, then has God made different days as different or it is the humans that have carved out such practices. If that is voluntarily being practised by someone out of some devotion, that is still fine. But, imposing such practices on others without giving proper reasoning/analogy/logic, is just not acceptable.

Having said that, there are many practices of our past that are still relevant and proven by science. It may happen that sometimes we don’t know the logic of those. But, I find that many of them related to human health and well-being are based on some logic, which is now accepted by modern medicine and science. Like the practice of “fasting”, maybe associated with religious reasons as well as being a health advisory, but now modern medicine has demonstrated several benefits of the age-old practise. So, we must not lose our quest to know the reason behind such practices/traditions propagated by our forefathers. We must do a litmus test and then adopt any practise. It might be that there is a certain reason behind doing something, which might be known to a few individuals only who may have tested it. That reason should be documented and shared among other people, who could also benefit from that knowledge/wisdom.

So, in summation, we shouldn’t reject some traditions/practices/beliefs outrightly only because they are very old, antique and redundant. Many of them might be actually useful and could be a result of the centuries of experience of some group of people. Yet, we must not lose our ability to reason and scientific temperament, to test those in the context of today’s world to make our lives even more beautiful. And we must be ever ready to change our mindsets wherever we find those repugnant to human logic. Like, if the next time a cute little billi crosses your path, don’t be disheartened or demoralised or become negative, rather be positive that even if the billi crossed my path, I am doing just fine 😀

Till next time….