Triskaidekaphobia!!!

I am generally a pretty sane bloke. Decent habits, concrete beliefs and sufficient abilities. But one blot that I have been unable to rid myself of is that slightest sense of superstition i have. I know, I know... Superstitions are for morons, idiots and George .W .Bush; but nevertheless I have these these moments when hesitation in action occurs just because some vague superstition pops up in my head.

I come from a pretty orthodox family. As in, Amma strongly believes religion and has never been 'away from home' (until she got married obviously, but that was her home then!). And Appa truly believes in the core (true) values of our religion and he HAS been in a hostel environment. So i often am exposed to the myriad set of beliefs and superstitions that our religion has. The most prominent example is the "Rahu kalam". Apparently this time of the day belongs to the demon Rahu (who in one of the mythological tales, swallows the sun). I have lost count of the number of times that we have had to start journeys and reschedule shopping for auspicious occasions due to "Rahu kalam". This is the maximum superstition I permit mother to entertain (or is it?).

Anyway, in this complex human life bound by black cats and sneezes, I have managed to largely avoid most of this tom-foolery. Well... most except the strange uneasiness i associate with the number 13. Yes there it is.... ladies and gentlemen... I am a patient of Triskaidekaphobia (not too severe though). It is defined as:

S: (n) triskaidekaphobia (a morbid fear of the number 13)

Although I wouldn't say that my feeling for the number 13 is 'morbid', it sure exists. I feel this is absurd as the fear of thirteen has started only in the times of christianity. So quite often on the 13th of every month i used to get jittery and would attribute every bad experience of the day to the number. Well, I don't do so now-a-days because i rarely realise what the date is.


But it was not so on the 13th of this month... yes the one that just went by. I had some divine foreboding of the day. I say the clock on my mobile at exactly 12 am of the 13th. And i was like... "Grow up, u moron! Ur 21 now... hmmm 21... 13+8... so i have to look out for 5 years hence... when i will be 26(13 X 2) ... OH SHUT UP!! there is no such thing as unlucky numbers.... why in the name of gaia should god create a number and then make it unlucky????!!!!??? ... one big moron you are... someday i should blog about.. HEY THE LATEST EPISODE OF LOST IS ON THE LAN"

So in that fashion I spent the first few hours of the day oblivious to the impending agony that awaited me. The whole day reaffirmed my beliefs in:

1. Murphy's law (more fun facts about it)
   
2. The old hindi adage: "Bhagwan jo deta hai chappad phad ke deta hai". I find this true for torture and agony also.
3. "Larger you are, harder you fall" (Old proverb)
   
4. There is no "Happily ever after" moments only "after every happy" moment. (Sudarshan, circa 2005)
5. A blog is like a girlfriend. Fun in the 'fling' stage, but requires maintenance in the long run. (Sudarshan, circa 2005)

Now I shall explain the impeccable logic behind these beliefs from my own experience.

It started with my tonsils... I took a 2 hour nap and when i wake up, my tonsils are the size of africa. The bloody things got in the way of swallowing, drinking and even talking. So i relaxed a bit and hoped it would go off soon. I have had the tonsil problem since a loooong time. But never got it operated due to the bad experience that amma had in her operation (gave her a tinge of double voice). So I forgot about it... and it became something that was hidden under the blanket and instructed never to pop out again. After over 6-7 years, it found this very day to come forth in undimming glory.

So in the afternoon, when i opened GTalk, I noticed my project supervisor in Harvard online (Yes, I am doing an extra project... Husssshhhh .. my guide doesn't know about it). Sudden pangs of guilt struck as I was to give him results this weekend and I had been TOTALLY tied up in academic stuff and also was stuck at one place in the project. So I opened the software, checked the model and started a few runs. And then all hell breaks loose. My UPS stops and I have to wait for 5 minutes before booting the computer. I got totally frustrated with the efforts as the monitor went yellow and I needed a proper colour monitor to do image processing!!

So quit that and went out for snacks. After snacks, I went to the loo and with my hands and feet being all wet, I stopped to talk to a hallmate. I happened to keep one foot on the wall and the other normally on the floor.... Although I made no sudden movements in fact no movement AT ALL, I was in the air... and in a second on the floor. I don't know what did it. 'Cause i swear there was enough traction on that slipper to compete with michellin and I had been standing without moving for 5 minutes..... Anyway there I was ... on the floor.... forcing a smile when the hallmate, half-bemused half-concerned asked me if I was alright.

Yes, I was alright... How could I not be??? I still had the remaining day to face. Then I walk into the room and see a couple of offlines from a close friend. "Hey..." "Just wanted you to know that me and ________ broke up" "happened a couple of days back..." ... I grrroooaaanned my heart out. See... this friend of mine and I had an amazing connection until last year. Both of our lives sucked and we used to be happy that we atleast compete in "World's 10 most suckiest lives!" reality show. Then the latter found a nice relationship and was pretty happy (or recently just seemed to be). And I was really happy (Not because I was the undisputed reality show champion) but because its good to see a friend's life going on well.

So the day trudged on... and i felt pretty morose by the end of it... I had some vague stuff going on in my life too. Actually since then I have slept at such odd times that i forget what happened when... but the above 4 are entrenched in my mind as happening on the 13th.

So what made me write this blog? I opened some friends blogs today and got tagged twice(one by chaavi and other I got myself tagged at DD's).

So I open my dashboard rite? and it says... "A journey to absurdity...." --> 13 posts.... I was flabbergasted ... the longest break in my blogging just when the going was good. And in these past 50 odd days, I have wanted to blog atleast 15 times... 15 different events... Just couldn't get myself to do it... Had work or just forgot...

So I have started writing this post at 9.15 PM ... and its 3.55 AM now. 13 has tried its best to stop me from writing .... with umpteen distractions and one UPS failure... But I saved the drafts... I know the crafty ways of 13. So 13, be warned!! ... The gauntlet has been thrown... please don't hurt me!


Shit happens.