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It is said that Adolph Hitler became somewhat fixated with superstitions as a young man, and one of his fixations lay with The Spear of Longinus, also known as The Spear of Destiny.

The Spear of Destiny was purportedly used by Gaius Cassius a Roman soldier, to pierce the side of Jesus Christ as he hung on the cross at his crucifixion. “But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a lance, and immediately there came out blood and water." From John - Chapter 19, verse 34.Touched by the blood of Christ The Spear of Destiny is said to have played a significant role in the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies, and is believed to have acquired tremendous mystical power, power very appealing to a superstitious man such as Hitler.

It was his wish that he capture the spear to ensure his good fortune. Hitler finally managed to seize The Spear of Destiny while annexing Austria. When years later he committed suicide, he did so on April 30, 1945 – just ten days after his birthday, and unknowingly, within only moments of American forces capturing the spear of Destiny in Nuremburg.

General George Patton then became fascinated by the weapon and had its authenticity verified. Eisenhower however, seeing Patton's fascination with the spear, quickly gave orders that Spear of Longinus along with some other artifacts were to be returned to the Hofburg Palace in Austria where it remains today.

One of the definitions for superstition is below: “A superstition is the belief that events are influenced by specific behaviors, without having a causal relationship.”

Everybody has something or the other that they follow unconsciously. I am no exception. One that I have is to get up from the right side of the bed. If I am traveling by train, I mentally picturize which end of the berth I should have my pillow to facilitate that. I don’t remember any of the valid reasons for it. The only one I do remember is “If you don’t get up from the right side, you’ll have a lousy day. things can go wrong”.

I am an “innovator” in this aspect. I create my own. Most of them have been reserved for special occasions like exams and cricket matches featuring India.During my school days, I would never go to an exam without my mom giving me a “Tulsi” leaf as Prasad for good luck. I don’t know why but I always got the feeling that eating that tulsi leaf would increase my memory for all the stuff I had mugged up for the exams. Once I went to an exam without taking it and I didn’t fare all that well. I put it down to not taking the tulsi rather than anything else. That stayed till I went to my professional course which took me out of home and placed me in a hostel. With mom not around in the hostel to give me the tulsi leaf before the exams, I created my very own “ritual” albeit accidentally. The first semester exams were on. My usual habit was to sleep early on the eve of the exam and get up early to revise ‘coz my dad had taught us whatever one studies with a fresh mind stays longer. On exam day, I got up around 4.30 AM before my alarm rang, probably ‘coz of the butterflies in the stomach. When I went to the bathroom to freshen up, the water was really hot. On other days, I usually was up by 7.30 and by then most of the hot water was consumed). So, I decided to take a bath and was fully ready. By 5.00AM, I was showered, had worn my ironed clothes and even my shoes. I sat at my table and revised the stuff. I did very well that day in my exam. Again I put it down to that ritual. Infact, the clothes I wore that day became my “exam clothes”, my 2 hero pens became “exam pens”. From that day on, all exam days, I would get up early, get ready, wear my “exam dress” and shoes and then revise For all 8 semesters, I wore only those clothes on exam days. I’d come back, wash them and press them in time for the next exam. I never used those pens for anything other than writing my exams. Even there, I had an order in which to use the pens. My thought was that no matter how badly I was prepared, this ritual would make sure my exams were easy. In fact, by the time I was in the eighth semester, the fancy buckle on the left boot (they were the cowboy boots – influenced by western spaghetti movies) had come off...but I used a safety pin to keep it in place and wore it despite owning better ones. That's when my roommate got to know of my “ritual”. My distinctions were courtesy of this ritual.

Watching cricket matches featuring India is another “ritual” creator. I have so many different ones. However unlike my exam ritual which was consistent throughout the four years, cricket match rituals are “dynamic”. This is something I still do. I have to admit. I remember this one match in Bangalore, a day-night game, when India was chasing a target. I was at home watching on TV. Wickets had fallen with still some distance to go and Anil Kumble and Javagal Srinath were at the crease. No hope of a win when my mom told me – “Atleast have your dinner now!!” I was in the middle of my dinner and was about to put a morsel of food in my mouth when one of them hit a boundary. I sat in that position... like a statue for the rest of the match...seriously!! My arm was hurting and my folks were making fun of me but I didn’t move a muscle. India won. If someone tells you it was on the back of some fighting batsman ship from Anil Kumble and Javagal Srinath..don’t believe them...It was my statue position that won it for India! But from that match on, I have made sure I am sitting in a comfortable position so that when something happens for India and I have to be in a statue position, I am atleast not hurting myself. When I was in the US, we had a cricket team in Memphis that I used to play for. During the 2003 world cup, the matches used to be played early morning our time – 1.30AM. After the first two matches when we found it was tough to be up and watching it alone, we decided to keep company and make the viewing enjoyable. So all of us on the team decided to watch it together, at the captain’s home. We celebrated when India won the next match against Zimbabwe and I tried to pick on something I had done but couldn’t really think of one. Anyway since it was an easy game, the team didn’t need my support. India won the next match against Namibia. That day I noticed that on both occasions, I had parked my car in a particular spot. The next match was against England. I didn’t get my parking spot that night and saw that the car parked there was another friend’s. I went in and told him to move it out so that I could park there. He shared it with the guys and everybody had a good laugh. India batted first and were going well. Sehwag was out. Ganguly and Tendulkar were batting and the guys were still ribbing me. Suddenly both Tendulkar and Ganguly fell and they were all animated in discussions on how the rest should bat. I told the guys –“Look if you can just get Makhija’s car out of there and give me that spot, India will win”. They didn’t succumb to it. India went on to make something like 250, I think, and the guys were wondering if they would be able to defend. 

During the break, I again told them, “Guys, give me that spot and India will win”. More to humor me than anything else, they relented and Makhija pulled out his car from there to let mine in. What followed was super stuff. In an inspired spell of bowling, Nehra got 6 English wickets and India had a thumping win. by almost 90 runs or so. When the celebrations were on, I prompty told the guys – “See, I told you that spot was lucky for me”. It rubbed off on the guys...from that day on, for the rest of the matches until the finals, that spot was reserved for my car. 

Well, India made it to the finals and the number of people wanting to watch was too many. Since I actually had the Dish connection and worldcup package in my apartment as well, I had been hounded by many to let them come and watch. The captain also had numerous requests. So for the finals, I was playing host at my apt. and couldn’t join the team. Ricky Ponting started thumping the Indian bowlers. Midway, my captain called me and asked me to come over to keep the “luck” going. I left my friends in-charge of my apt. and drove down, only to find that my spot had been taken. Unfortunately, that day, it had been taken by somebody not from the group. We couldn’t get it moved. India lost the match. Not because of Ricky Ponting....but b’coz some baseball-loving american had taken MY parking spot!!

However, in the last year or so, I have replaced these with a more profitable one. I always bet against India no matter who they play. It maybe 50/100 bucks but I think it’s a win-win situation for me. If India win, I don’t mind paying up and if India lose, I end up with some moolah that helps me get over it pretty easily. I could relate many more such colorful examples of “rituals” that I’ve seen folks follow but lest the reader think that I suffer from some sort of obsessive-compulsive disorder like Jack Nicholson in “As good as it gets”, I’ll let it pass.