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Superstitions associated with sneezing
In northern parts of India, sneezing before stepping out of the house or at the onset of a new task or journey is considered ill luck. Whereas, in the western parts of India, sneezing means that someone is thinking about you. For the married women it is believed that it is their mother-in-law who’s thinking about them.

In the Badaga community of the Tamils, it is considered a good omen if the father sneezes before the umbilical cord has been cut when the baby is born. In some parts of India, it is also believed that while talking about something if someone nearby sneezes, then there is a strong possibility of your talks or thoughts coming true. In West Bengal it is called ‘Shotti hachi’ meaning if someone sneezes while a person is talking about something it will come true, whether good or bad. This idea is also shared in some parts of south India, especially Karnataka.

In the other parts, like Tamil Nadu and Kerala it is considered inauspicious to sneeze upon an idea or journey, just like the north Indians; though a subsequent sneeze cancels the effect of the first one. However the general response towards a sneeze in India is by blessing the person to live long; like in Bihar it is ‘Chattanji’, in Oriya it is ‘Buda/budi te hai tha’, in Tamil it is ‘nooru aayisu/ deerghaayisu’, in Kashmiri it is ‘Bismillah/ Kustaan chu yaad karan’.

There is no end to such quirks, beliefs or superstitions, and the more you feed them, the more they grow. All of us have, some time or the other in our lifetime, wanted to believe in such quirky forecasts. I remember as children we would believe in two Mynah birds bringing luck and one bringing bad luck and till date I tend to ignore a single Mynah and eagerly look for the second one!

Many such beliefs are widely practiced in India and I’m sure the world over. Hiccups means someone is remembering you; biting your tongue means you are being cursed by someone; and fluttering of right eyelid is ill luck while fluttering of left eyelid is good luck. I think we are all entitled to some madness of our own to spice up our lives, so don’t suppress your sneeze. You may actually die doing it, so just sneeze away, but do cover it up or sneeze into your upper sleeve.