On Being 'Littlestitious'
by Noora Ashraf
May 22nd, 2023
Illustration by Amey Mhatre
If you look in a broken mirror, then bad luck will come your way.
If you watch a butterfly fluttering around you, then you will get your period.
If you witness a flying cockroach, then you will receive money.
If you glimpse a grasshopper hopping about inside your house, then you will get goodies from visitors.
If the inside of your right palm itches, then you will get money, and if the inside of your left palm itches, then you will lose money.
If your right nose itches, then somebody is praising you, and if your left nose itches, then somebody is bad mouthing you.
If your left eye lid beats rapidly, then something bad is set to happen and if it is your right eye, then you will see somebody you were longing to see. Or vice versa.
If the fluffy, soiled end of the broom touches where you sit, sleep, or eat- like a chair, sofa, table or a bed- then somebody from your household will get sick.
Whistling at night, or wearing jasmine flowers at night will attract snakes.
Tearing cloth while it's on the body might cause death.
Cawing of a crow can either mean good or bad. If it is in a soft tone and with significant intervals, hustle, you have visitors. If it is rough and free of intervals, hustle, something bad is on your way. Either way, hustle.
If you sit on a pillow, then your father will be in debt.
If you wear black slippers everyday, then you will slowly lose your memory.
If you look at the moon (voluntarily and involuntarily, both counts) in the month of Safr (Second month according to the Hijri Calendar), then you will lose something. If you lose something in this month, then you will continue to lose them for another three years.
If you don't wake up before the sun wakes up, then you will go broke. If your mother, like mine, uses the expression ‘jaanthiram’1 with a tone and gravity, then anything and everything she says is to be believed.
John 13: 34 NKJV “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.”
Jaanthiram - This word doesn’t have an exact translation. It loosely translates to ‘be broke’ or ‘be doomed’.
Even when her religion comforts, superstitions add a pinch of anxiety, for flavor.
Superstitions are transgenerational, passed on across generations like family heirlooms, cared for, unquestioned, kept intact. My Umma passed the superstitions she had received from her mother to me. When superstitions bring misfortune, she finds shelter in the preachings and practices of her religion. Even when her religion comforts, superstitions add that pinch of anxiety, for flavour. Shoo off that one crow which caws in a rough tone without intervals; wait for that one bad thing to be over with, which your fluttering left eyelid welcomed. Expect the money owed to you for you witnessed a flying cockroach in the house.
I don't see a butterfly for quite a time, weirdly enough, when it is around my periods I see a butterfly out of nowhere; I have received money when my right hand itched and lost money when the left hand itched; when a grasshopper has hopped inside my house we have had visitors who brought goodies. When my Umma has touched the bed with the broom, I have caught a cold. I love sewing yet I have never cut clothes on Fridays and Sundays. I didn’t look at myself in broken mirrors. Though I was afraid of the yellow shaded moon of Safr, once I accidentally saw it and I lost my gold anklet, and for the next three years I lost many trinkets made of gold.
At the same time, I cut my clothes when I really want to sew, a childhood hobby that brings me joy; I quietly listen to the modulations in the cawing of the crows on the mango tree, when not irritated in general; I adorn my hair with jasmine flowers at night when I crave its scent, delicate; I tear my clothes while it's on my body, if the situation calls for it: I sit on a pillow without being weighed down by the fear of my Uppa going bankrupt, instead enjoying the plushiness cradling my behind, and I don't mind looking in a broken mirror.
Every passing day I become a little less stitious. Every passing day I believe them with all of my heart.
Noora Ashraf is an English teacher. She is a native of Kannur, Kerala. She is a lover of beaches and mangoes! Noora tries to break the norms of her immediate society one at a time!
John 13: 34 NKJV “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.”
Introduction, page 3; Music and Faith, Jonathan Arnold.