Of strange Beliefs called Superstitions...

God...Religion...and the associated terminology...slowly moving towards blasphemy...I rebuked my friend Sunny as he tried to justify the importance of Navratras to me this Saturday night...Having spent the day before researching on my supposed roots - Hinduism, I had very clear understanding of the concept of the Brahman and how this world works as per Hindu mythology...the kalps, the avatars, the deities, the puranas, the Hirayanagarbhas were so thoroughly ingrained in my head that I was reciting the entire history even in a state of inebriation...

But this metamorphosed me suddenly jumped back into time...2001...class 10th boards...VK...I remember myself to be a very pious child then...following all rituals which our holy book prescribed...a very devout creature of god...and similar characteristics...

Anyways, our boards had finished in April and we had thoroughly enjoyed our li'l break in May and June (unfortunately the whole fun after the X boards was partially depleted because we also ran through the inevitable cycle of deciding our fates - Science or Commerce or Arts and then starting coaching...but again before all that began, and after all the enjoyment, the time for the results was nearing.

Now, though, all of us had done decently well in our papers, the proven track record of the mysterious CBSE paper checkers and their notorious deeds in giving absolutely opposite marks started haunting us...What do you when that little voice inside you tells you that it could be you who goes under the guillotine...not a lot many options I suppose...we did what most of us would do....we started praying...every evening, I, Rohan and KV would suddenly disappear...only to go to the temple in Sector - A to pray to the almighty. We were too proud and perhaps shy to be caught praying in our own sectors, but with all the mums on their daily evening walks, you couldn't hide with out being embarrassed...

Hanuman Ji ki Jai is what one of us would say and the rest would join in...in fact, even the pandit ji started quoting examples to other people of how the three of us would turn up every day...we were like the 3 kids who stood out in the world which was heading towards depravity...lolz...I would even guess that Hanuman Ji himself waited for us to turn up...I don't know why but somehow going to the temple every day and praying to god made us secure...or as I saw it, in worst case scenario, we had some one to blame if things didn't go our way...

But that isn't the point...we did what we did then out of sheer hope and expectation - as innocent as it can be...I thought to myself; now, I am too educated, too literate to believe, to have faith, to trust unto him...it wouldn't be wrong to call me a heretic. Surely, some one who starts dismissing his own belief as a superstition should be...

Bam!!!

I fall down from my chair and return to reality...swearing at miscreants of fate....probably, in heaven, Hanuman Ji has a smirk across his face as he says...well done, you!!!