There is a thin line between belief and superstition. However both can make sense at times and can be senseless at the same time. It is really weird that no matter how educated you are you do get sucked into this world of things that you have to do only because your elders say so.Especially, in a country like India where your entire identity is layered with culture, customs and rituals.

Recently I came across  tons of youtube videos explaining the logic or the science behind most Hindu rituals. I found it quite fascinating and amazing as well. Only if we knew the logic behind things that we do, life would have been so much simpler as a child who is only asked to imitate what the elders do.

Over the years I have realised that you are forced to do something without explaining why you keep building a certain amount of anger towards it which at some point or the other builds up in a huge rage or it could make you a rebellion. No wonder we have tempers rising from generation to generation. While the solution to this problem is so simple, ‘just explain the logic behind it’. I have a teenager at home so I know for sure this logic card doesn't always work instantly, you have to be consistent, let the whole concept sink in. sooner or later you will see a difference.

The reason why I am pondering on this topic is the current situation we are all in. The pandemic - It just doesn't make sense how something so minute that crippled the entire global economy missed the hawk-eyed world leaders. Why was the senseless massacre by the virus not nipped in the bud. Anyway finding a sensible answer to this is way out of my league. 

What makes me write this is a recent heartbreaking incident, where I lost one of my dear ones to this deadly virus. Devastating as it sounds I couldn't even join the family in the times of this grief due to local restrictions on movement. Then I heard of a very naive ritual that forbids the maternal family to spend more than a few hours with the grieving daughter or daughter in law. Let me make it clear, my maternal  aunt lost her son, that’s my cousin, so mom along with her brothers went to console the grieving family. Guess what?  According to the village ritual anyone from my aunt's family or the family of the wife of the deceased can;t even have a sip of water when they go to visit. 

I mean isn't this the time when you need your family the most. So then why only the boys or the men are given this luxury of sharing grief with everyone while the women can merely see her family only for a few moments before they are asked to leave. 

Does this make any sense? And what is even more despondent  is that there is no one to question this senselessness that has been going on for years.