A Black Cat, CheckOut Lane and Traffic

Two cats are almost permanent residents of my backyard, one black and one brown. They are not mine but might have to say adopted as they spend more time at my place than at their owners. Recently they have started annoying my dh since he is afraid they might do "something" to his precious babies (read okra plants). They dont do anything seeming harmful. Atleast I thought to until very recently I started observing a trend.
On some days the black cat crosses my path as I step out of my house. Though I do not know much by the way of superstition, the black cat crossing one's path I think is not so good. I know how because long time back my MIL and I had made some ribbon pakoda for a relative and after packing the pakoda in bag we both stepped out of our house. Lo and behold a BLACK CAT crossed our path.Immediately my MIL panicked as asked us to go back into the house, sit for a few moments, drink water . Which I did dutifully ( read thats the only thing I might have done dutifully and further reading will explain!). As we sat for a few minutes my MIL asked me to open the pakoda packet and taste some and I did. As I was snacking she took some from my hand. My dh too has this habit. He will say no to a snack and when I sit and eat he will take from mine. Anyway we ate a little drank more water and stepped out. Again the BLACK CAT crossed our path. This time MIl was all irritated and I rushed in to continue the regimen before she got further upset. So we drank water, sat down and ate more pakoda from the same packed packet meant for relative. By now it was half way down in quantity. So after more water we stepped out and again, you guessed it the BLACK CAT crossed our paths. By now my MIL had lost all patience and was furious. She shooed the cat from where we stood. It looked over its shoulder at us but didnt seem to care much. I thought we didnt have to do the same process again but she said we are going in. By this time she also had to use the bathroom and afer sitting down and snacking some more she changed her mind and said we were not going out. Well we did end of finishing pakoda made for relative.
But I digress. So when I saw this black cat crossing my car I remembered all the instructions my MIL had given me. Needless to say I did not follow any of them. So I went to the supermarket. After finishing my shopping I went to the checkout lanes and was annoyed to see every one of them crowded. so I had to wait and wait and then I observed my lane seemed to move slower than other lanes. By the time I had come out of the shop I knew it had taken longer than normal and my mind jumped to the Black Cat crossing my path. As much as I tried to rationalise my mind clutched itself to the Black cat and its crossing my path and my MIL's dire warnings.
After that everytime it crossed my path I started to observe that I was completly slowed down in traffic. There would be a very old woman driving in front of me and I would be completely slowed for ever. I definetly knew there was a strong link between the cat and the traffic.
So yesterday my ds and I had to take some cookies we baked to a friends house. Well as we were stepping out the Black cat crossed my path again. Remembering the check out lanes and the slow traffic I told my son its not good that the Black Cat crossed our path so we came inside. He looked at me as if somethings seriously wrong with her but being the obedient son did not say much.
As soon as we came in I made us both sit down and have water and ofcourse opened the cookies to have a few. We then got ready to leave when It happened again. So we rushed inside and repeated our routine. By now ds thought this was some game and was very amused by it and was in a greater rush than I to sit and eat cookies and drink water.
By the time we finished I had to goto , yes you guessed it, the bathroom and we called it off. Dh coming in thought it even more amusing and finished off the rest of the cookies. Now everytime I get ready to go out everyone makes fun of me and hide away all the cookies so I will not use the Cat as an excuse to come rushing in!! Dont you all agree that I did the right thing by coming in and sitting down and drinking water and eating cookies?

dear AC,
that was gud fun... anyway, following them seems to be beneficial to you, having all those extra helpings of ribbon & cookies....cat or no cat, wud love to have them myself, anytime... :)
dh has some queer superstitions himself...no one in the vicinity should sneeze when he is starting something important !
btw, hope your okras are still intact...

Originally Posted by sowparnika

dear AC,
that was gud fun... anyway, following them seems to be beneficial to you, having all those extra helpings of ribbon & cookies....cat or no cat, wud love to have them myself, anytime... :)
dh has some queer superstitions himself...no one in the vicinity should sneeze when he is starting something important !
btw, hope your okras are still intact...

Sowpardear
I did not know a SUPERSTITION about sneezing.. really ? is that both indoors and outdoors? interesting??

Hi AC,

enjoyed your post...now i have a doubt...U have trained your black cat to come across so that u can have all these cookies and pakodas to yourself...being the good person that u are u start with the noble intention of sharing with all and then go back and enjoy them yourself giving the black cat as an excuse...howzzzaatt....

hey just kidding of course..personally i hate cats black or otherwise..i think they are very sly creatures....

Mindi

dear chithra

your humour is a never ending, and it come through in most of your posts.
vow what an imagination played up for some pakoda and cookies, damn good an excuse but seriously it affects us a lot when these things happen as we have been brain drilled with all these stupid customs, but then checking out sometime i find what they said was true, now what do you say for that..sunkan

Hilarious!! You write so well and bring out the day to day incidents at household very easily. These unnecessary superstitions annoy my husband too, esp since my mil follows way too many. mil being a very lively person, will say it makes her calm and less tensed if she puts the blame on the black cat or the small odd number sneeze if something goes wrong! well, whatever works best - atleast you got to eat your own cookies, what better way to enjoy the cookes guilt free than by putting the blame on the poor cat

Regards,
Priya

Dear AC,

Read your post I was

To eat pakodas and cookies you had to conjure so much I thought you have gone .

Don't worry there are so many people with you in this faternity and the head of this faternity will be my DH. Yesterday so happened we decided to go to temple as he is having his MBA exams from today. He wanted to keep his hall ticket at the feet of the Lord (no......... God is not going to write the exam). I was waiting for him after getting ready (which is usual) my kids asked me icecream, which I had done (thanks to our IL ) so went in to give my kids their share. When taking out the ice cream, my dh was ready and asked me to start for which I told 5 min.... by the time the bowl which I had kept near the ice cream slipped and fell down and broke. That was it....... glass broke down when going for a good thing..........He got so irritated and went to the pooja room to tell some shlokas. Don't ask about my mood............

AC this was hilarous one still can't stop laughing so for eating cookies you started giving the cat excuses ah too bad.......hahahaha
Wonderful post I too heard all such things for whatever job you are going will not happen and all, but to tell you the truth I don't beleive in all this at all, if I do all this my DH and DS will start.......... all mad things you bring to your mind and all. So it is good to ignore all these superstitous beliefs.
AC did you notice sometime even when a cat doesn't pass by all such things happen one time or the other it is just we blame the cat for wrong time.

Hilarious !

I think somebody should make a rule that if a black cat crosses then u cant eat for the rest of the day. Now that would be good for losing weight !

Santosh

Originally Posted by Mindian

Hi AC,

enjoyed your post...now i have a doubt...U have trained your black cat to come across so that u can have all these cookies and pakodas to yourself...being the good person that u are u start with the noble intention of sharing with all and then go back and enjoy them yourself giving the black cat as an excuse...howzzzaatt....

hey just kidding of course..personally i hate cats black or otherwise..i think they are very sly creatures....

Mindi

Mindi
Cats are sly creatures ???? hmmm.. interesting.. I think they are clean though.. You caught on right about me using them as an excuse.. absolutely.. though I dont need an excuse..