Monday, June 27, 2005

Flash Fiction - 4

Superstition

"I think I'm going to have the baby tonight," she said as she clenched her teeth to overcome a particularly tough contraction. "The contractions are evenly spaced and getting worse. These are definitely not Braxton-Hicks."
Her mom immediately opened the cupboard, took out her worn-out astrology book and started turning the pages.
"Tonight's a new moon night," said her mom. "Its not good if a baby is born on a new moon night. He will be very aggressive when he grows up."
"Amma," she said. "You know I don't believe in those stupid things."
But her mom continued to turn the pages and peer through her glasses at the pages as she held the book at different angles.
"If he's born tomorrow, his star will be Rohini," she said with a worried look on her face. "Thats not good for his uncle."
She looked exasperated."I really don't need this now Amma!"
"Atleast if he is born tomorrow he will be born on an even-numbered day," continued her mom. "That's supposed to be good for a boy."
"Please stop it Amma," she said. "You are so old-fashioned. How can you still be so superstitious in this age of technology and science? This is exactly why India is not developing. Everybody is stuck in the past with all these silly beliefs."
Shaking her head, she went into the other room, changed her dress and got ready to go to the hospital.
"OK mom, we're gonna go to the hospital now."
"This t-shirt is so old," said her mom looking at her. "And look at all the stains on it! The one you were wearing before was actually better. Why did you have to change?"
"Oh, this is the top I wore for my last pregnancy," she said matter-of-factly. "It is my lucky dress."

22 Comments:

At 1:44 AM, Blogger NS said...

You too doing an Ammani??!! Great one!:) keep them coming..:)

 
At 3:22 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

flash fiction or flash fact ????

 
At 9:01 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Balaji.. a good one..

In this aspect, there is a limit for everything, right? Whereas that T-shirt is a personal thing with really fond memories, the 'panchangam' is totally out-of-phase. Surely irritating for the present generation.

Your story is like "luck vs superstition". Generation gap.

 
At 9:26 AM, Blogger Krish said...

Thanks for the comment on my blog. Appreciate it :-)

 
At 9:42 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

nice one, bj...yeah, is it a true story?

 
At 9:51 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

hi! u write very well. nice post.

 
At 10:44 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

bb...you're fast turning into a Shyamalan:) If "She" was "The Sixth Sense" then "Superstition" is "The Village" - I could see the "twist" miles away:)

 
At 11:20 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

bj, did u get around to re-reading way of travel?

 
At 12:00 PM, Blogger Arvind Srinivasan said...

Nice one !, if you had trimmed it out a bit, could have given Ammani a run-for-her-money ;p

Blogrolled you :-)

 
At 12:04 PM, Blogger pk said...

Good one Balaji.

 
At 12:40 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

whats all this ammani stuff?

 
At 12:49 PM, Blogger Balaji said...

nithya, me trying :) thanx!

ruchi/ram, i guess part fact part fiction :)

gp, not really luck vs supersition. was just trying to point out that its all relative.

anon, lol. only diff is that in this case i wasn't really aiming for a twist :)

ram, no havent revisited it yet.

mandar/arvind/kal, thanx!

ram, ammani is one of the most popular bloggers around. Her quick tales r phenomenal in conveying something crisply thro minimal # of lines. her blog's @ ammani.blogspot.com

 
At 8:44 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

nice punch in the last line

 
At 8:44 PM, Blogger ioiio said...

Hey blogrolled u as "Yelu Gundala Vaadaa"

 
At 2:41 AM, Blogger ammani said...

Hahaha...good one. And a topical one (I'm thinking about the new addition to your family). Good, good.

 
At 8:28 AM, Blogger Chitra said...

Good one! :)

 
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