Superstitions

Truman Capote steered clear of starting or finishing his writing on any given Friday. If the phone number of the hotel room he was staying in had the number 13, he would change rooms.

Every culture has its share of superstitions. Don’t know what poor number 13 has done – but superstitions related to it transcend cultures. The thirteenth floor goes missing from the buildings across the globe – from Indonesia to Arab world to the west. As if the people on the 14th floor don’t really know that they are actually living on the 13th.

In India, we probably have more than our fair share of superstitions. A black cat cuts across the road and you are supposed to turn back from wherever you are headed. The same if you sneeze stepping out of the house. Whatever you are going for isn’t going to get done anyway. A spoon of yoghurt is the reverse. It would add that extra dose of luck to an exam or a job interview. Lemons and chilies hang from households and vehicles to ward off the evil eye. Clean the house after sunset and you are sure to annoy the Goddess of wealth. Itching palms can mean different things depending on which one is itching. If it is the right one, money is on its way, but if it’s the left, money is going out.

Growing up, I found these superstitions ridiculous and did my best to not follow them – sometimes against my parents’ wishes.

Surprisingly though, some have actually stuck. I don’t wash my hair on Thursdays and not allow any metal objects to enter the house on Saturdays. Not sure how that happened – if something actually went wrong when a pair of scissors entered the garage.

Are there any superstitions you follow despite knowing that’s all they are – superstitions.