Funny And Quaint Things We Do When We Have Blind Faith

Do you say ‘fingers crossed’ when you are wishing hard for something? That is the power of faith, one that can lead to quaint beliefs and much entertainment!

Belief is all-powerful and our strong belief in certain things gives rise to our faith in those things. Faith of anyone cannot be questioned, unless it is affecting us and becomes intolerable, and results in blind faith.

Well here I am not trying to hurt or question the religious sentiments or faith of anyone. I just want to list a few of our beliefs, and blind faith in certain things which can be quaint, and sometimes downright funny. Here are some relatively harmless, but strong beliefs that we can see around us.

A matter of relative importance

We, the Indians can waste any amount of food and throw it in the dustbin or on the roadside, but when it comes to disposing burnt incense sticks or or for that matter even the ash left from the sticks, we only believe in immersing it in the flowing clean water and nothing else, even if it causes water logging or making the water impure.

Special days for the faithful

I have often witnessed my family and friends fasting on some particular days and donating generously, but on normal days they would just ignore the beggars.

Good business

While visiting temples one sees devotees thronging the place with their offerings, which most of the times contains fresh coconuts. I was amused to see that the coconuts offered to the deities were again sold back by the priest to the vendors selling them, though this time it was sold at a much cheaper price as sold to the customers.

Rings on my fingers

Recently I met this lady who was from the creamy layer of our society but it was hilarious to see that the ten fingers of her hands were overloaded with at least fifteen stones as recommended to her by an astrologer!

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And a chain on my neck

I often pull my husband’s leg as he, like Bappi Lahri carries a big gold chain around his neck with five pendants attached to it.

Car sense?

A proud owner of a brand new luxury car decided to buy neembu-mirchi(lemon and green chillies) to hang near the bonnet before buying any other accessory for his new car. People also sometimes buy special numbers for their vehicles (decided by numerology) which turn out to be costlier than the cars themselves!

Knock on it

I have often heard my friends saying ‘touchwood”, and touching everything else except wood.

Black superstition

Few years ago we had a neighbour, whose husband was stuck in a legal mess. The remedy for this as suggested by an astrologer to her was to feed a black dog every Saturday. The onus of saving her husband from this problem now fell on the shoulders of our black shepherd dog, who was made to eat this sweet bread every Saturday! Of course, as good neighbours, we could not decline her request.

Hairy tale

Another lady in our neighbourhood believed that if she threw away hair after taking the stray ones off the comb, it would bring bad luck to her husband! So she always put the straggling strands of hair in green plant pots or immersed them in flowing water.

Mum’s the word

There are people who abstain themselves from taking any names of any person, place or a thing early in the morning as it may prove unlucky for them.

Oops, I saw the moon!

On Ganesh Chathurthi (birthday of Lord Ganesha) many of my friends do not move out of their homes as they may accidentally see the moon which would put some curse on them, as many say that seeing the moon that particular day would annoy the Elephant-God.

Kala tikka

At last, even I would also like to confess about my belief. It has become a habit for me to never let my daughter leave home without a kala-tikka (black dot), which puts me also in the list of blind-faith holders!

So, faith can be very funny. Keep the humour on!

Image source: fingers crossed by Shutterstock.

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