Tuesday, February 07, 2012

Starry Affair


Trust, belief and faith are like the pillars of hope in desperate times. We tend to entrust these values upon someone who we can call our confidante or a close aide or family. Once you develop trust for someone, start believing or having faith in someone or something; it is a strong indicator that your heart lets you rely with positive conviction on them. However, this reliance on someone for an opinion or advice, in my outlook, is justified when the point in question is logical enough. And why the need for me to advocate that? Well, to my disbelief, a recent incident made me laugh out my wits!!!

A newly married lady (about 2 years of marriage, yet I would call it 'newly married') was unable to find her mangalsutra anywhere in the house; which she might have either misplaced or lost it or in the rarest case it must have been stolen. Rarest case because there were only family members in the house at that time who could not be blamed. Frustrated over the lost mangalsutra, this lady calls her mother and narrates the case and also about having thoroughly checked the house for it.

The mother, a woman of ancient or should I say impractical beliefs, rushed to the nearest pandit for 'consultation'! According to her, he would read the stars of her daughter and tell her about the lost mangalsutra!!! And he did just that! He worked out some weird calculations of the stars and nakshatras and assured the mother that the mangalsutra is somewhere in the house itself. The mother did not stop here; she went to two more pandits to confirm and returned with similar answer. This strengthened her belief even more and kept reiterating to her daughter that the mangalsutra is in the house itself. She went on with it by even alleging some members at her in-law's house of playing the mischief! "Panditji has told me this. I have full faith in him," is what she had to say.

If only the mother-daughter duo be patient enough and consult family members if they happened to see her mangalsutra and try to find it in peace! But they believe in pandits more than anyone else! If only the mother had asked the pandits where exactly the mangalsutra is, they could have answered even that, I thought. Of course, by applying all their knowledge about stars and nakshatras.

I searched for a place where I could hide my disgust when I heard this. Yet at an after-thought, I was even imagining of things we could ask these pandits, if they were to be believed! "Panditji, I hear my neighbours fight every day. Will they settle with each other in peace?", "Panditji, I tend to forget to take things along while leaving home. When will I overcome this?", so on and so forth... On a lighter note, imagine that we won't have to keep thinking because, panditji hai na....

Quite a starry affair that!!!!