Seven of us sat in a huddle in our friend’s living room. In the next room, her last journey was about to begin. We were still in shock. We could not digest the sudden loss.
‘Look at the Ganesha there,’ my friend nudged me.
The fairly large statue had a crack in the middle but it had not fallen apart. We looked at each other. Definitely a bad omen. Had they noticed it before? Should we tell them now?
After the cremation was over, a friend informed the family. ‘They had noticed it even when Bala was alive. But you know her. Both the husband and the wife never cared about superstitions and so it stayed,’ they had told our friend. They invited us for the obsequies on the third day.
Superstitions. Connecting the unconnected and then dreading it. Friday the 13th, black cats crossing our path, a mirror breaking, the list is endless. Majority of us believe in them though in most cases no plausible explanation is possible.
Like it happened in my friend’s case. During a temple festival, her hair got singed by accident. She was standing with her back close to the oil lamps lit all around the sanctum sanctorum. The following year turned out to be a very bad one for her. But according to her, forewarning is forearming.
She was mentally prepared for any eventuality and fully believed that everything would finally end well, which it did.
This supports a study that says that superstitions can sometimes work, because believing in something can improve your performance. Think of whatever you are comfortable with—getting off the right side of the bed, wearing a particular colour, a lucky dress or jewellery; at the end of the day it is all in the mind.
If we think something is going to work, nothing can stop it from succeeding except probably our own mind. Call it by any name, but if a belief helps in achieving the goal, it is worthwhile. It creates faith followed by perseverance.
Many will reiterate that there is definitely a link between seemingly unconnected events. But the rational mind will try to convince others as well as themselves that such happenings are pure coincidences, just like statistical inferences or as in astrology.
Rational people like my friend and her husband would believe only what they see.
Maybe we were foolish to link Bala’s demise with the crack on the Ganesha idol. With a heavy heart, we visited her house on the third day.
Ganesha had disappeared.
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