SUPERSTITIONS

                                                      jai ma kali
                       SUPERSTITIONS
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   The most prevalent superstitions are-----
   If an owl lives somewhere near your house, plug your ears. If you hear the hooting of an owl, someone in your family will fall sick.
  If a cat crosses your path, halt! Wait till someone else passes ahead of you, then only you should go after spitting on the path.
  If you are leaving the house and someone summons you back for something, you had better give up your programme for that day. If you go ahead with it, you will only fail.
   If the whinning of a dog is within your earshot at night, get ready to start mourning because someone close to you is going to die.
      A superstition is something we accept as true without any rational basis for this belief, which results in fear in the believer and does harm to him.
   It is believed that illiteracy and ignorance are the root causes of superstitions. But even well educated persons and people who ought to know better, enslave themselves of superstitions fears.
   There is the strong belief that number 13 is an unlucky number. If the 13th of the month falls on a Friday, it is an exceptionally unlucky day. That is why many hotels and residential apartments have no room number 13 and no floor no. 13!
   AS a matter of fact, most of these beliefs are passed on from one generation to the next. Needless to say the elders influence our beliefs and behaviour whether we are aware of it or not !!
                 (DEVENDRA SRIVASTAVA)
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SUPERB KINDNESS

                                                    (jai ma kali)
                      SUPERB KINDNESS
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     To escape the horrible onslaught of sweltering summer, I, with some bezzies , jaunted to a hill station. During our sojourn there, we hailed a cab to go for site seeing. One evening after coming back to hotel, I found my wallet missing.Perhaps I had left it in the cafe where we had our lunch. It was futile to rush to the cafe for tracing the wallet. I was disappointed but we had no option to get it back.
   A couple of days later as we were slumbering , someone pounded on the door. We cautiously opened the door to find the cab driver.
   " I came to return this," he said, holding out my wallet.
 " Where did you get it?" I asked in utter bewilderment.
  " I had driven today to the cafe. I asked about the wallet left there about two days back, the owner gave me this. Here is his card. He wants you to tell him getting back the wallet."
  We were overwhelmed with gratitude at the incredible honesty of the cafe owner and the superb kindness of the cab driver. Before I could give him a reward, he had already evanesced. 
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                      (DEVENDRA SRIVASTAVA)
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