Superstition

I was travelling in a taxi and all of a sudden the driver stops in the middle of the road. I might have dozed off, so I woke up with a start. Expecting to see a huge queue of cars lined up in front of me I craned my neck out of the window. Interestingly, all I could see was an empty stretch of road with not a soul in sight. That is if you don't count the cat (no reason why you shouldn't count the cat, but then again you may just ignore it). Well, you see, there was this skinny, grey cat which was moving from one side of the road to the other in the most leisurely manner. At the moment the only thing I could help noticing was the meter of the taxi which was creeping upwards in the most alarming manner! After the cat had crossed the road (sitting down to lick its butt twice in the meantime) and disappeared completely behind a fence, the driver closed his eyes and screwed his face as if to remove all traces of memory attached to the cat. After that, he counted what seemed to me to be a billion and brought his hands together and looked towards the heavens. Possibly he prayed for himself, his family, his extended family, his second cousin thrice removed who had her seventeenth kid last Monday and the rest who are in dire needs of a prayer (which pretty much includes the whole of the country). All this time, the meter ticks away.

Now, don't get me wrong here; I have nothing against the superstitious. That is, nothing, if it doesn't cost me anything. But hey! If superstition burns a hole in my pocket, I quite obviously object! So where exactly do we draw the line? I mean as long as my interests are not in conflict with your superstition I have no problems. The public and the private have always been in conflict and so they shall remain long after I am dead and gone. Their seeds are sown so deep in our consciousness that through our entire lives we are only vaguely aware of the countless times we shuttle between the rational and the irrational.

Anyway, I'm basically just pissed off at having to shell out three extra bucks.