2 mynahs

Every day, when I wake up, and step out of my house, a part of me is always filled with trepidation. About whether I will see 2 mynahs or 1 mynah.

Oh, by the by, today is blog deluge day. When I am able to write what I think, and think about what I am going to write, and I am blocked by neither time nor laziness.

And now, back to the mynahs. The old woman's rhyme goes:

"1 for sorrow, 2 for joy, 3 for letter, 4 for (boy/girl), 5 for silver, 6 for gold, 7 for a secret never to be told." Well now, this was presumably years and years and years ago. And I am quite sure it was written in a part of the world where mynahs are few and far between. And sighting 30 of 40 of them together is not so common. Ofcourse you will find these mynahs everywhere. Literally everywhere. in the world even.

And woe is me, because i was afflicted with stupidstitionitis from a young age. Bordering on compulsive obsessive disorder, I am unable to discount day to day events as happenstance or even a happy coincidence. There are always factors - hidden, unseen factors at work that ensure the passage of time as it does pass..

And it is these pieces of good luck (or bad) that determine whether the day is good or bad. Never mind that it will influence my thought process. Or that it will create a disconcerting presence of the fear of the illogical in my mind. No, ofcourse I am as rational as the day is long, but is it my fault that I mentally live not in a tropical country, but rather in a ice covered northern waste, where it winters for months, and is summer day for but a fleeting passage of time.

And I am wary. Of looking out of the window when showering. Of looking out of the window of the car when travelling. Of strolling to the broken window by the lift and staring into the blank distance. Of lifting the blinds of my 5th floor window. Of hearing a single shrieking call of the single mynah out to fill my day with bad luck, and forgotten appointments, and mislaid tasks, and unheeded advice, and backlash. Fierce, retributional backlash.

And on days, where I challenge my luck. And I see the pair of mynahs sitting on a lampost. Flying across the road. pecking at the ground. Chirping and fighting with a crow. I am happy, and I feel lucky. And things still go badly.

After all nobody likes a cocky arrogant son of the boss who thinks nothing can go wrong just because he saw 2 mynahs together.

utekkare,

Pranay