Superstition

I admit to having one superstitious kink. I carry 2 coins in my wallet at all times. One is a silverish coin that a fakir gave me while he was trying to beg my skin off me (and he was quite disgusted to know that I only had Rs. 30 on me, I'd just bought 2 pints of beer for my morning routine). The other is a 10 cent coin that somehow landed in the same place that the other superstitious coin is kept, and stayed there.

Oh yes I have one more. My bed's head always points north. Since I have rather small bedroom, and a rather large bed, it basically means that my bed has been in the same position for the last two years. Almost every other bit of movable furniture in my house gets mercilessly displaced every 6 months or so, but the bed stays put.

And the kinds of superstions that adorn the minds of some of my most esteemed colleagues and friends still continues to amuse me. Like when Nikhil (Khade) bought his laptop. He bought a Compaq that was exorbidant for the features that it offered, when there was a much cheaper local brand (Zenith) to be had. I'd have understood if he'd have admitted to having a bad experience with Zenith computers, or that he'd imported his laptop from abroad, in which case he'd have been getting a better deal.

Then there's the obsession with odd numbers that Tum has. She has to do some things 3 times. Even numbers are the worst. I'm sure that if I open and close the door (while counting the number of times I'm doing it) an even number of times, I'll have to do it one more time.

There are other modern superstitions: not writing cds on a saturday night, waiting for 3 drinks before going to the loo, saving one's work every n minutes even though you have power backup, not turning on the AC in the first few minutes of starting the car, not lighting up more than 2 cigarettes in a single flame, never passing a cigarette in any other way other than thumb or forefinger.

This guy in the plane took the cake. He looked both ways before crossing the aisle.