Saturday, February 20, 2010

Superstitions in modern world !

We were getting ready to catch the latest movie on Friday evening , i was at a friend's place waiting for him to get ready. Just 20 min to go for the movie , he was searching for his car keys and finally when he found it and when we were about to get out , i sneezed ! Had this nasty cold for last couple of days and had been sneezing throughout evening , nothing different in the way i sneezed this time . However my friend seemed to have a different opinion , he stared hard at me then inexplicably instead of following me out of the house and locking it , he went back and sat on the sofa ! 19 min to go for movie ... i was really surprised and asked him whats going on ? He said "you sneezed" ... then added "they say when someone sneezes before you go out for something , its not good sign , you should sneeze again or we need to wait for a couple of minutes " . Now suddenly i was the guilty party , in spite of not misplacing keys and despite being ready much before time , by this act of sneezing i had delayed our departure and now i suddenly realized that he actually expected me to sneeze again to ward of the evil ! i told him to stop this nonsense and marched him out ... though he came , it still nagged me this behavior came from a guy raised in city ! News channels / newspapers report about a lot of superstitions and medieval practices followed in rural hinterlands , but incident above made me look around in urban India for superstitions.

Of course harmless ones like believing that our cricket team will win the match if we continue sitting in the same position on our sofa is amusing and charming you could say. But there several annoying ones as well where the particular practice must have had some relevance when our ancestors initiated the practice , but following them in today's age without thinking whether it is relevant or not is foolish IMO

Some practices actually make a lot of sense and probably because they didn't have any scientific basis to support the belief , some religious explanation was provided to ensure that people follow that practice . The belief in astrology is another perplexing thing , sun-sign and stuff are really harmless obsessions . What really astonishes me is that lot of educated youngsters think astrology is a science ! The fact that college educated youngsters confuse Astrology with Astronomy is a sad reflection of our education system !

Recent solar eclipse was another reality check on the superstitious urban India , plethora of e-mails started floating around ( driven by older generation who have become net-savvy of late ! ) advising everyone the dos and don't s of eclipse. I got a mail from someone telling me what Hindu's should do to ward off eclipse evils , including the mantras to be recited. Mail also mentioned that no food should be consumed during eclipse( 11am to 3:30 pm on that day) and we should take bath as soon as eclipse is over before doing any activity . Quick search online tells us that there is no scientific basis for this , according to scientific community solar eclipse is a brilliant celestial event , however care should be taken not to view the sun directly during the event. I wrote back with links mentioning that as far as i know we need to avoid looking at sun otherwise we should do fine. I got a mail back saying , Sun releases harmful rays which pollute the food and will cause stomach upset if food is consumed during 11am - 3 pm when eclipse had occurred. The person suggested waiting till 3pm and then consuming the food . My further questions like - "wont the food prepared during the day contain these so called 'harmful rays' " ? Wont the raw materials get hit by radiation ? Wont entire food in the world get tainted that way , should we stop eating forever ? - did not elicit any response ! Although someone else suggested adding Tulsi leaf is a sure-fire way to get rid of all the 'germs' and radiations !!!
I tried to reason with another person who endorsed the contents of mail that by not consuming food during proper time we will actually be causing indigestion and stomach upset . I got a reply that such a thing wont happen as it is ok to consume Milk , biscuits etc during eclipse , we should not eat proper meal that's all ! I was totally stumped and did not have any response to offer for such gems of wisdom ... and these are the answers i got from educated , working professionals !

Its very amusing yet sad all the same , as people are sullying our glorious tradition and culture by blindly following practices . Im not saying everything we do is stupid or meaningless , there must have been precise reasons for each and every cultural / religious practice and belief . For eg , wrt solar eclipse , our wise ancestors would have probably understood this problem and had through religious myths ensured that people avoid looking at sun and even stepping out during eclipse , as a precautionary measure they would have ensured we don't perform any activity during that time.
In today's world thanks to scientific advancement , we are in a much better position to know things and instead of trying to understand why we are doing something , people still believe in blindly trusting the wisdom of ancestors. Knowledge is a continuous process and every generation owes it to next generation to keep finding out things and improving the knowledge of how and why things happen . But somewhere down the line the purpose of the whole thing seems to be lost with regards to our traditions , questioning them gets you branded as non-conformist rebel and as arrogant youngster ! Its really frustrating when people , even educated people, living in urban India working as software engineers follow these ancient beliefs without really thinking

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hope ur sneezephobic friend does not read your blog!!

Abinav Kumar said...

Or, he should.

Anyway - yes, superstitions are amusing. I do accord due respect to ones who follow - but sort of flip out when I am expected to follow. Don't cut nails after 6 PM, don't get a hair cut on Tuesdays, shouldn't go to temple/ celebrate festivals for a year after the demise of a close relative - the tradition and superstitions tread a dangerously thin boundary.

The only 'most accurate' superstition is my not watching Sachin bat leads to him scoring a century.

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Indhu said...

The last para made me smile.. that even 'software engineers' believe in superstitions- as if they are a breed apart! formal education or lack of it is made out to be the marker for progressive thoughts and actions. when in fact they are not. I have found the most progressive actions and thoughts among impoverished rural women while some urban, educated are highly moralistic and illogical. this is not to romanticise lack of education or poverty. but the need to reexamine the myth that 'education'will tackle everything, will foster rationality etc. there is a much larger dynamics that works- cultural, social and religious which we tend to ignore.

Anush said...

@ Indukka

"Software Engineers" remark was not to claim they are a superior breed or anything , just to illustrate that these people are educated in ways of science for 4 years and having studied in a college for 4 years must have interacted with a lot of people.

My point is also that being in urban India and being 'educated' doesnt mean you are progressive in thoughts and actions !

This is where education is failing IMO , education should not mean just teaching from books ... its a total experience , u learn inside and outside classroom on academic and non-academic things

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