At a recent social event, I met a friend who was down from Mumbai and she made a public confession of having added a few letters to her name… She said this was in order to be more successful at her work. This prompted an interesting discussion about superstitions and the easiest thing to do in any such situation is for someone to make a provocative sweeping generalization – "Oh !! This is so disappointing really to know that young Indians are superstitious too." A singular comment that consumed a better part of the evening with the underlying context that more exposure and education have done little to make the new generation less superstitious than the previous ones… Someone mentioned an article they read here or there and before we knew it, there was full heated exchange…
A few days later, my nine year old daughter asked me if I was taking the next day off and getting up early at 4:30 am. I am an early riser but this was not what she was hinting at... When I probed more, she said that she heard at school that all married women are supposed to do some Pooja and if I loved Daddy, I need to get up early – Oh, Vara Mahaalakshmi it was!!
Webster Online dictionary defines superstition as: An irrational belief that an object, action, or circumstance not logically related to a course of events influences its outcome; any blindly accepted belief or notion. Superstitions are the manifest weakness of human mind, they say and were created mainly to spread fear.
As I sat back and reflected on the two separate conversations, I was clearly amused. And just to set the record straight, I am the so-called previous generation and not superstitious. So I began to question my young Indian friends and family if young India was indeed as superstitious (or more) as the older one... I was curious also to know what drives superstitions. I began to ask questions, read blogs and came up with top few superstitions around these days. Most young Indians insisted vehemently that they don’t believe in superstition but still go along with them. Here is what I found.
- Young software engineers giving food to beggars to ward off the evils of solar eclipses
- Recent trend of young people changing their names, adding / removing letters on the basis of numerology
- Forwarding lucky chain emails
- Reading their daily horoscope to plan their day
- Performing some specific pujas to land a job
- Wearing a specific outfit / colours for important meetings / interviews
- Fasting during Navratris
- Wearing a religious amulet for exams
Some said they do it out of fear. The need to control the future and make it as predictable as possible is what drives them to do things that we might not be able to explain logically.
Others said they do it for the sake of their parents / peer pressure / society. Keeping the fasts when all your college friends or office mates are doing so, perhaps satisfies a yearning to "belong". When we share a superstition, we play a socially integrative function and create a community of sorts that one feels part of.
Some said they follow superstitions to assuage anxiety and gain confidence when we are faced with the unknown. So, if Dhoni does not know what the next ball will feel like, he depends on his favourite bat / t-shirt to give him a sense of security and confidence, a comfort zone that helps him perform. Wearing your amulet to crack an important exam is like carrying your security blanket with you.
And then the last category of people who do it saying "what’s the harm?". Lot of IT savvy folks admitted forwarding emails (me included) with the simple thought of "let’s give it a try. Who knows it might work!!".
As I pondered over this to explain to my daughter why I am not keeping the fast, even though I love her father, the message was very simple - it is all very personal. Like religion, it is all about personal choice and faith. Superstitions are not based on facts. And like with any choice we make, we need to be aware that each choice comes with certain responsibilities and consequences. In this case, the placebo effect of superstitions can at times make us so dependent on them that we cannot function without them. There is still some time before I will know whether the next generation (my daughter!) is less or more superstitious!!
Till then, let me know what are you superstitious about?
A few days later, my nine year old daughter asked me if I was taking the next day off and getting up early at 4:30 am. I am an early riser but this was not what she was hinting at... When I probed more, she said that she heard at school that all married women are supposed to do some Pooja and if I loved Daddy, I need to get up early – Oh, Vara Mahaalakshmi it was!!
Webster Online dictionary defines superstition as: An irrational belief that an object, action, or circumstance not logically related to a course of events influences its outcome; any blindly accepted belief or notion. Superstitions are the manifest weakness of human mind, they say and were created mainly to spread fear.
As I sat back and reflected on the two separate conversations, I was clearly amused. And just to set the record straight, I am the so-called previous generation and not superstitious. So I began to question my young Indian friends and family if young India was indeed as superstitious (or more) as the older one... I was curious also to know what drives superstitions. I began to ask questions, read blogs and came up with top few superstitions around these days. Most young Indians insisted vehemently that they don’t believe in superstition but still go along with them. Here is what I found.
- Young software engineers giving food to beggars to ward off the evils of solar eclipses
- Recent trend of young people changing their names, adding / removing letters on the basis of numerology
- Forwarding lucky chain emails
- Reading their daily horoscope to plan their day
- Performing some specific pujas to land a job
- Wearing a specific outfit / colours for important meetings / interviews
- Fasting during Navratris
- Wearing a religious amulet for exams
Some said they do it out of fear. The need to control the future and make it as predictable as possible is what drives them to do things that we might not be able to explain logically.
Others said they do it for the sake of their parents / peer pressure / society. Keeping the fasts when all your college friends or office mates are doing so, perhaps satisfies a yearning to "belong". When we share a superstition, we play a socially integrative function and create a community of sorts that one feels part of.
Some said they follow superstitions to assuage anxiety and gain confidence when we are faced with the unknown. So, if Dhoni does not know what the next ball will feel like, he depends on his favourite bat / t-shirt to give him a sense of security and confidence, a comfort zone that helps him perform. Wearing your amulet to crack an important exam is like carrying your security blanket with you.
And then the last category of people who do it saying "what’s the harm?". Lot of IT savvy folks admitted forwarding emails (me included) with the simple thought of "let’s give it a try. Who knows it might work!!".
As I pondered over this to explain to my daughter why I am not keeping the fast, even though I love her father, the message was very simple - it is all very personal. Like religion, it is all about personal choice and faith. Superstitions are not based on facts. And like with any choice we make, we need to be aware that each choice comes with certain responsibilities and consequences. In this case, the placebo effect of superstitions can at times make us so dependent on them that we cannot function without them. There is still some time before I will know whether the next generation (my daughter!) is less or more superstitious!!
Till then, let me know what are you superstitious about?
