Only Superstition?

Ahh…Smell that? Yep, that’s fresh stench of pure struggle and strife. The nose tingling fumes of frustration and anxiety. Because it’s that time of the year again. The time where all tenth and twelfth grade students are confined to about two months of house arrest, the dutiful task to swallow all their text books, and to eat steamed vegetables for supper. Believe me, exams are one of life’s grueling obstacles which are just not worth the backache, nausea, damaged corneas and swine flu. But along with the exams comes an interesting, if not completely desperate, plea to the Gods to survive the entire ordeal. I’m talking about superstitions.
You know, the lucky sock that got you to score your first goal, that lucky pen that earned you that perfect score on that test, the lucky song that was blasting in your head at the time you were writing the previously mentioned test with that lucky pen of yours…you get it. We all have these tiny little superstitions, routines and rituals to make a seemingly impossible day, possible for us and to stop our absolute worst fears from coming true. Gives desperation a whole new and bizarre meaning, eh? Especially for exams, which have set out to determine your immediate future for you, most people need to take measures so that everything goes according to plan.
When it comes to being superstitious, I’m not you’re conventional operator. No, I don’t own a lucky pen, nor have I ever scored a goal with socks on. That being said, I did score a goal once, but I think it was by accident. Anyway, being superstitious isn’t just about owning various items of intrinsic value, it’s actually more of a way of life. That’s why, at approximately this time last year, I went a tad bit overboard with this noble art. I recall watching a melodramatic Marathi serial known as ‘Kalat Nakalat’ from time to time to make sure the Maharashtrian Gods were on my side. Plus, I was bored of studying Hindi. Apart from that it was essential for me to keep a certain song in my head as I studied, so that I would be able to remember what I’d learnt. Also, for a good part of those two months, I was obsessed with some sort of mad Gujarati play called ‘Rock On, Faiba’. A play which I had never seen in my entire life, mind you. Though that was purely for reasons to entertain myself since I was going nuts. Then, I refrained from going out onto the terrace at night, just to avoid a nightmarish paper the next day. Don’t ask.
Well, after all that eccentricity I don’t quite know how it all affected the way I did in my Board exams. I mean, I did fairly well, but was it just the because of the overwhelming sway of the superstitions? Or was it because I had studied well beyond saturation point? Or, maybe it was those steamed vegetables after all...