The All-knowing!

I have a paternal relative who claims that he always had a foreknowledge of things that would go wrong. This uncanny capability of his was not restricted to things domestic but all other conceivable spheres. But the intriguing thing about him was that he never uttered a word before the event. Much after every incident, he would merely offer a terse “I knew this would happen” or “I told you!”

If the wash basin in the bathroom wrenched free from its moorings and crashed into a thousand pieces, he would be the first to arrive on the spot to declare that he knew it would happen and that he told us. But if anyone asked him to whom he actually sounded the word of caution, he would have no reply. He even got into difficulty once on account of this habit of his. When Rajeev Gandhi was assassinated, he declared in his customary elan that he knew this would happen and when a Police officer living nearby came to know of this, he picked him up for questioning! During the course of the questioning, my relative apparently told the Police Officer that he knew this would happen because he had often discussed it with Sivarajan! Sivarajan, if you would recall, was the one eyed guy who planned the assassination. But the Sivarajan, who our man was referring to, was a retired teacher of Hindu High school and a close friend of my relative! He was let off after all of us intervened and pleaded with the officer. It is of course a moot point whether this incident had any sobering effect on him

This relative of mine is a classic example of Evan’s and Bjorn’s Law that says “No matter what goes wrong, there is always somebody who knew it would”. The world is full of them. They are everywhere, in our professional spheres, clubs, other social circles, and circle of relatives. Many are even fortunate to have one in their spouses too.

I have often wondered whether these people really had such premonitory capabilities. If they had, why are they talking about the things that went wrong only after the incident and not before? And how could they have foreknowledge of everything that happened in this world, of even such incidents like an accident at home? Incidents like when you are trying to fix a picture on the wall and in the course of accomplishing this singular feat, your thumb inadvertently comes between the head of the nail and the hammer. The All-knowing will be the first one to arrive on the scene to declare “I knew this would happen!”

The most striking feature of The All-knowing is that their premonitory capabilities are restricted only to negative things happening to us. When good things happen to us, they don’t utter a word. But just one goof up, they are promptly on the scene to declare " I told you!". Looking at them you do get a feeling that they are rubbing salt into the wound and that is their sole aim!

 

Dear Abha
I have also heard of 'karinakku' and would like to know if there is a scientific explanation. Emile Coue`, a famous French psychologist and the father of auto-suggestion, proved the power of mind over matter by this experiment. He got hold of a man scheduled to be hanged next day with the permission of the King of France. He tied his eyes with a black cloth and told him that he would be put to death by a painless method. He was informed that a small cut would be made in the artery of his hand and he would bleed to death.
Accordingly, a cut was made but not of the artery but only on the surface of the skin. The blindfolded man thought that his artery had been cut. Emile Coue` then poured water in a vessel close to this man by drips and kept on telling the man that his blood was dripping fast into a vessel. The man died in 30 minutes!
Karinakku probably has the same effect on us. When we believe that some one is endowed with a 'bad tongue', whatever he says triggers our subconscious into making it happen!
Sri

 

Dear Bhargavi
The kind of people that you describe are quite helpful to have by and they have useful suggestions always. But the one I tried to portray are just wasters who should come and show off their wisdom only when things go wrong.
The people you describe are like top class surgeons who can save lives whereas my men are capable of only post mortem with this difference that these folks ,after conducting the post mortem would go on to say that they knew that this would happen to the victim!
Sri

 

Dear Chithra
After reading about Mr.Vish, I had this feeling that he would have honed his skills in this department further if only he had taken a little training from an uncle of mine! His nickname is 'Naan sollale(did i not tell you) Ganesan'! This had to be given to distinguish him from another uncle of the same name!
But what amazes me is your hubby's power of the mind to be able to have a shop closed for the day! Honestly, the all-knowing people are fun to have around except when we are the butt of his comment and when particularly looking aghast at our bleeding finger or cursing a stone that had just had a tete e tete with our gouty toe!
Sri