Nazar nahi hatti

Superstition- It is supposedly a blindly accepted belief or notion. This belief in ‘supernatural’ which is nothing but the occurrence of an event caused by another through astrology, religion, omens etc defy natural science! 

Personally, I am not much of a believer in superstitions. However, we are forced to follow certain custom based instructions at home such as do not cut the nails after sunset, do not leave the slippers toppled over, do not step on the lemons on road, consider twitching of eyes as a bad omen, so on and so forth.  As I mentioned, I follow these customs not out of belief but out of respect for my mother and her beliefs.

Despite of this, there is one particular superstition which fascinates me and makes me question the truth behind these beliefs. It is none other than the Evil Eye. The evil eye is supposedly a malevolent look that many cultures believe to cause injury or misfortune for the person at whom it is directed for reasons of envy or dislike.

I am not sure about other superstitions, but I tend towards believing in this particular superstition- Evil Eye. When one of our distant relatives comes to our home, we all hurry to put ‘kaala teeka’ to ward off her evil look. This ritual is because whenever she visits our home, my mom would invariably fall sick and my irked mother used to quip ‘whatever I have in my life which she doesn’t’. Mother elaborates further ‘The intensity of an evil eye is so much that it can even melt a rock’.

At times when I am back from an event or function and fall sick for no particular reason, my mom decides that it is because someone must have cast an evil eye on me. This is followed by the customary puja to remove the evil eye. A few strips of the broom stick are put on fire and circled in front of my face while chanting a mantra to remove the evil eye. What is even more interesting is that after the puja, we actually feel better. I am not trying to exaggerate here and I know it can be reasoned as a psychological effect. It is just that, considering the number of times it has happened, I am unable to overlook this phenomenon.

At a recent occasion, someone said to me ‘You are so hale and healthy, you do not have any/many serious health issues like me’. All I could reply to that was nod and smile. No need to mention this was followed by several medical visits on my part. 

What I am trying to comprehend is why does this happen? Is it really true that if someone looks at you and your happiness and overcomes with jealousy wondering ‘I do not have that’ and boom! You are cursed and have high chances of suffering in one way or the other. Is it really possible for one human being to have so much power to inflict trauma on someone else either as revenge or for simple jealousy, using witchcraft and voodoo as well for that matter. Although I keep searching for an unequivocal answer for these questions, I know the answer for one question; ‘Is it necessary to go to such lengths to hurt somebody? Even if they had hurt you before’. I figure no, I’d rather spend my precious moments in improving my life than waste it on ruining somebody else’s. In the end we are all going to die and we all go through pain, heartbreaks, loss of a loved one and more in one life, it is not worth that I spend my time in harboring hatred for years and seeking revenge against whoever it is.

Interestingly though, Indian subcontinent is not the only place where we have superstitions. These are present around the world in the most bizarre ways possible. One superstition held in Germany is that if someone has difficulty dying, one may ease the process by lifting up three tiles on the roof. In South Korea, it is believed that if you leave a fan running overnight you will die, either of hypothermia or asphyxiation. This misconception is so prevalent that fans are often sold with timers that turn the fan off after a set period of time, allowing you to sleep easy and, you know, not die!

Are superstitions just made up things? Or is there any logic to them? The reasoning with which our ancestors declared these do’s and don’ts may not have been understood by the subsequent generations, but obviously they have been religiously carried forward.

Whatever the case maybe, if the description of evil eye is considered to be the negative thoughts and actions directed towards us, then I believe the only way to defend yourself is by making yourself stronger. Let the world grudge upon you and try their best to be the worst. You know it says nothing about you and a lot about themselves.

Here’s an excerpt from a Mother Theresa quote, which exemplifies all I want to say..

“If you find happiness, people may be jealous. Be happy anyway. 

The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway. 

Give the world the best you have and it may never be enough. Give your best anyway. 

For you see, in the end, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway.” 

- Madhushree Lakshman

(About the Author - Madhushree is not just another young Bangalorean who passes-by without notice. Change is a way of life she believes, driven by her will to solve the problems around her. Co-founder of 'Volunteer For a Cause (VFC)' a registered non-profit, she knows from experience what it takes to tackle a real world problem and is on the path towards solving it)

Unite 'em Soldiers!

It is great that we are all concerned and working to put a smile on those underprivileged, isn’t it? Considering the children in orphanages, we volunteer to see them happy, we teach to help them get good grades, and for that period of time we sacrifice all other needs of ours and just concentrate on the cause. It is very kind of us to be doing that. When you zoom out and have a bird’s eye view of the whole situation, you see that you are doing good work; driven by good intentions and motivated to bring a change in the way we live. Ok, that’s a Check. We are doing good to the society, exactly what we intended to do upfront. But, are we effective enough in doing what we are doing. We are volunteering for a cause. It clearly means, there is a problem. And by our actions the problem should get a solution. What is the point otherwise. Volunteering in an orphanage is just an example, it applies to all fields of volunteering. So the big question of the day that all of us volunteers should address is – Are our actions giving us the intended results?

If you look at it, we are all investing our resources and time thinking that good intentions will lead us to good results. Unless we don’t know what results do our actions produce we really are wasting time. Unless those results are measured and put in line with our vision or intentions we are wasting time. There are so many of us doing the same thing at different places. Some of us just volunteer on the ground, some of us get aligned to the objectives of any organization which will help them define and measure their actions to an extent, some of us do philanthropy without objective as most of us want to help. There are volunteers and people associated with voluntary organizations everywhere. Leave apart the global scenario, considering a small community we will get hundreds of such kind people coming together. It is clear that similar problems persists everywhere. One can easily define a common problem statement, just to put things into perspective.

Just to have our analysis clear going forward lets restrict our focus to communities. First task would be to define a community, may be based on geography (this can be discussed). And bring on the table all problems in that community for discussion and define it. And now bring all volunteers and various voluntary organizations to that place and discuss ways to target this problem. Now we have a directed approach. The efforts are concentrated and focused towards one common goal. Well, ego issues might be the one to counter. But what can be greater than the cause itself. This idea can be too idealistic. But coming together and sharing resources will be the change that would be required. What is the point in trying to re-invent the wheel.

The good intentions that we all carry will be put to test here. It’s a big challenge to develop harmony when we all unite for a cause. It’s a greater challenge to develop a synergy between all of us trying to re-invent the wheel of different sizes. The objectives are individual. The scope is limited to these objectives. And that is the biggest problem. The good news is, it has a solution. It is just the way we look at the problems in front of us which will eventually lead us to define our objectives. It is upto us to decide whether our only intention is to provide food for 10,000 people or reduce hunger by 5%. It is upto us to decide whether our main objective is to open 500 schools or improve literacy rate by 10 points. It is upto us to decide whether are we defining the objectives based on impact that our actions create or just based on some numbers that will not give an idea of how it is really contributing to the end result.

Just imagine the situation where all of those working for the education of the kids in orphanages are working towards one common goal – Improve literacy rate by 3 points in one year time. Wouldn’t this approach put lot of things into place? To teach English for one set of volunteers would be the need of the hour and others might think life skills would bring them on par with those who have a normal life, some might think science would be the thing that would fetch them a job easily later and so on and so forth. All these energies are diverted and spread. We are lost in our own objectives, without knowing the kind of impact it is doing. We can only understand and measure the impact of our individual actions only when we come together attacking a single problem. Similar energies should come together. There will be no conflict of interests. We are not business corporations to survive amidst competition. As competition does not exist in the first place. If there is a genuine voluntary organization, it is there because it is highly motivated by the cause. So coming together to improve literacy rate by 3 points should not be a problem, except that it is a big logistics challenge; unless we are still going behind details without having a look at the big picture. Exploiting technology will be of great help.

Its time we all come together. To attack the problem around us as one single force is the way forward and this is our standpoint!