Soooperstitious!!

DISCLAIMER : The anecdotes and incidents in this article are purely non fictional and real. Any resemblance to such other instances is not at all co- incidental.


A friend of mine was discussing the previous write up elaborating how colours are discriminated and that simply made me realize how badly color black is treated.

I remember many such incidents when my mom not only frowned but also gave us a hearing with such enormity that made us think of black itself as a bad omen. I pity the colour today.

My sister loves black but when she was to go see a guy for matrimony, "Dont wear black! mom would instruct. Going out for some good work "No black". About to get into something auspicious "No black". Birthday "No black". To be married "No black". Just gave birth "No black".

I mean its okay to have some colours as a priority but totally negating one colour just because its black, is another level of unfairness. It brings me to think of all the superstitions that I have not only seen people follow but a few done by myself too..

First The Black Cat.. When we left home to go out and found a black cat crossing the road ahead of us, we stop. Bad omen. Really?? had the cat known, she might have waited perhaps!! Some people dont even focus on the colour, "Billi ne rasta kaata, chal ghar"

There's another silly one : Sneeze and plannings are opposite to each other. For eg; I'm about to book flight tickets for a trip and Aaacchi, and I say "Flight might crash, Train se chale?"

A sneeze here is treated as a sign by God that something bad will happen on the path we choose. Coming to think of it, would a train driver or a pilot change their destination if they hear a sneeze just before starting the journey..

We are ready to take and will reach Delhi in... Aaaaaccchi... We are expected to land in Ahmedabad at 12:00 hrs... literally sabki baara baj jaayegi...

Here comes a stupid one.  As a kid I was told that if I see a mail van and make a wish. If a black car follows within two minutes of making the wish, it might come true. I remember scanning the road hungrily looking for black cars and also remember getting nothing at the end of the day despite spotting one. The belief never died, I still used to wish.. Kya pata aaj koi teacher absent hi ho jaaye...

Making a wish reminds me of the tiny hair from the eyelash that might have fallen because it generally does but I never let even one go without closing my eyes for a moment and then blowing it away from my fist.. You must have done that too..

My mom used to tell me not to do something of significance on an amavasya. "Why?" I ask. "Bade buzurg kehte hai it's unfavourable" I simply ask her "Amavasya ok baby hua toh kya karenge?" Clearly she had no answer to that shrewd question.

Some elderly say breaking of a glass is a bad omen while others argue it is indeed a good one. Encountering a milkman while leaving is a bad omen while spotting a cow (The one that gives milk) is a great sign.

We might have all experienced our bits of superstitions. I am more of a logical thinker so I would only attribute fear as the reasoning for such ideas to exist and spread. That is why there is no proper answer to such practices staying alive till date.

Perhaps superstitions  are rightly translated as Andhvishwas. People who believe them are virtually blind towards the truth.

Stay logical, stay untangled!


P.S: My left palm itches a lot since I got up, waiting to see where the money is going to come from (;


CHEERS!!

GOD BLESS!

CHS

Blues and Pinks...

Last week I received a text from Cherith's school saying they would celebrate buddies day on Friday. Hence, we were asked to dress our kids in pink.

Wednesday I checked all of his wardrobe but failed to find anything pink. So I decided to buy one. The next day I go hunting a pink t shirt for cherry and it was such a task.

I went to my usual shopping adda and I told the lady, I want a t shirt for a three year old boy. She assisted me to the heap and asked me to check.. "I want something in pink" she immediately replaced the t shirt that she had in her hand and blabbered "Nahi hai"

"Ek toh hoga" I retorted "No mam, boys ke liye ek bhi pink t shirt nahi hai"..

I walked out of there and went to two other shops and after failing there as well decided to give one more try at a shop near hubby's office.

After about half an hour of the three staff and owner peeping into all the boxes, finally I found one. Eureka I screamed in my mind. Outside I said haash mil gaya!!!

I was thinking this colour discrimination of clothes is happening at the manufacturer level!!

First of all, there are limited dressing options for boys. Second, every store has a 70:30 ratio of stock where girls' clothing stock is higher than boys'. The most annoying thing is the dedication of particular colours for boys and girls attires..

Girls will have more options with red, pink, orange where as boys would have to opt from blues, greens and grays..

Although colours are universal, we affix boys with blue and pink with girls even before they are born. Imagine the plight of the other colours.. Poor they, might be feeling either out of place or feeling like an in-betweener perhaps!

On a serious note, it results in shaming and teasing at young ages.. Especially boys wearing pink. I remember hubby's nephew being bullied by his schoolmates for wearing a pink t shirt. He came home and swore never to wear it because he was called a girl for wearing pink.

What are we getting into our children's minds...?

I was once asked by cherith if boys can wear pink. "Yes. Why do you ask?"
"Mumma, bhaiya says that is for girls"
"There's nothing like that" and I decided to prove it to him in time..

We went out one day and I found a man wearing a pink shirt. "See that uncle cherry" I directed his eyes to the man looking the other way. "What colour is he wearing?" "Pink mumma" "Isn't it looking nice?"
"Very nice" his face lit.

"We have got so many colours around us and God has made all of them for all of us. So anyone is free to wear any colour." I completed.

A few days later hubby was skeptical of wearing a pink t shirt and asked if he should change as we were getting ready to go for a movie. "Its looking very nice papa" said cherry and I smiled, relieved that he had got the point after all.

It's not just about colours, it's also about the kind of clothes we wear and the jobs we do. I find a kind of discrimination everywhere..

For example I was told working, earning, night outs, were associated with boys and cooking, cleaning, stitching, painting were all tasks of girls.. So I never got a chance to enjoy a pajama party and my brother was opposed by mum when he walked into the kitchen to learn how to make his favourite dish.. While we cannot change the way we have been brought up, we can always change the way we bring up our future generations.

Things have no doubt changed now but that's limited to a few. A huge number of families are still unwelcome to these changes mine including.. I intend to go the other way in parenting my child though.

Let us make sure our kids have an all accepting view. So he wont find it hard if the girl he likes doesn't know how to cook. Or if the boy she is dating helps them at home chores. They would be fine if a girl is working late nights and also when a guy volunteers to take care of the child at home..

Let's not focus on Blues and Pinks anymore, let's liberate them to try, experiment, fail and learn with as many colours as nature offers...

That is how we would have all hues beautifully blended to make their lives as stunning as a rainbow..


Towards a colorful future...
CHEERS!
GOD BLESS!!


CHS

Definition...

As soon as I read the title, something from my school days comes to my mind. Remember the two marker that was common in all question papers, regardless of the subject throughout all the years...

Since the time I have understood what a question paper is, there has been this question asking "Define the following" and I used to smile having mugged the definitions really well.

A few days back I was in my zone pondering what defines us? I mean as human beings, what is it that truly defines us.

Many of us might not be the same implications of our names.. Santosh might be unhappy, Bhavana may not be able to expresses her feelings and Chandra not as beautiful as the moon perhaps!

The environment we are brought up in, the family we live with, the friends we make, the religion we belong to, the relationship we get into or out of.. These are aspects that mould us.

We may have been carefree as a teenager but when we are into relationships, a son or daughter, friend, a partner or a parent, we do take up responsibility. So our behaviour is influenced by the relationship we are dealing with. That is not who we really are.

There are hundreds of thousand of people around us. The ideologies of society, the working of a system all have an impact on our lives but it is still not something that defines us.

What really does define us then??

We may react to a same situation differently given the circumstances. After contemplation and evaluation, we may apologize for our mistake and move ahead, we may be grateful for a favour, we may regret a bad desicions.

Your thoughts define you, your capability to think, differentiate and act in a good or unpleasant manner is the definition of you.

When you put in 100% in your bonds, irrespective of how much return you may get, that investment is what defines you.

When you mourn the loss of a loved one and also get filled with anguish when you hear about a little kid being exploited in some other part of the world, those expressions are what define you.

In college, we used to have definitions of one topic given by different authors and all of them were acceptable. In life, none of the definitions given by others should be acceptable.

"A homemaker is someone who sits at home all day and does nothing much in life" "A girl who has had a relationship before marriage is not a worthy prospect" "A boy who does chores of the home or a boy who cries is a girl" "A strong girl is one who is brought up like a boy"

There are many more such preposterous definitions I keep coming across time and again.. None of which I agree with. So if you call me arrogant, I would love that but it is nobody else's business to define me.

The self belief, the perseverance, the character we show in happy and unhappy days, the efforts, the love we have in our hearts, the values we imbibed from our parents that we want pass on to following generations, these are things what define us.

You are what you think, feel and understand about yourself. So explore different hues and facets of life and keep redefining yourself in your own words.


CHEERS!!
GOD BLESS!


CHS