Syed Zain Feature

Revised 
Editors, pls before taking it for publication, see note at the end of this version and see, was it revised according to the instructions or not

Feature

Superstitions 

Introduction and origins.

If you are eating something and it drops out of your hand, it is not because you did not hold it properly but because someone was looking at it with lusty eyes. If you had an accident it was not because you were not driving carefully but because a black cat crossed your path , and if your child is sick, it is not because he ate something inappropriate but, because he has been hit with an evil eye. That’s Pakistani society for you. We blame totally irrelevant thing for random incidences of our lives. Mainly because we don’t understand the real cause, or we just don’t want to take the responsibility of our doings. 

Superstitions are something that have prevailed not only in our society but all over the world for a long period of time. If I was to define a superstition, I would say that it is result of the lack of knowledge of human mind.  The Human brain always seeks meaning in things, it catches patterns even they are not there, and it can be easily fooled. When our mind cannot come up with any explanation of an incident it just makes up one, just to make itself convinced that it understands, and it is not a fool. This is origination of a superstition. 

In Pakistan it is difficult to find a city or even a little town where you don’t find this “BABA PARKASH BANGALI” type of advertisements on the walls. Our society is so unscientific in its approach that it can literally believe anything. You must tell it in a frightening way only.

We have  become so familiar and adjusted with superstitions that we don’t even notice them anymore. And we ourselves have some superstitious beliefs. A shopkeeper thinks that his business will thrive because he has hanged some holy verses in his shop or the picture of his spiritual guide. 

 Most of the Pakistani people believe in evil eye. They believe that someone can cause harm to you just by thinking about you or envying from you. I would love to have that power one day but unfortunately it is just a myth. 

Another famous superstition is that if a crow caw on your roof then there could be a guest coming to your home. People also believe that there disease can be cured by drinking some holy water from some holy well, concept of bad spirits is also common amongst our people, and the most funny of them is that if you take too much care of your hygiene it could be an invitation to a ghost to attack you. There are thousands of them.

Hyderabad is full of these superstitious people too . People go to these weird looking baba's for the fullfillment of their wishes. they believe that the person who himself asks them for money to do some kind of chilla can solve their problem , can help them increase their income, can help them pursue theor beloved and so on . 

The babas service is not limited to these things only . They provide special services as well and in very unique and hilarious ways at time.

Just like "tanki waly baba" in hyderabad . He claims that he would just make you drink some water from his Tank and all your problems will be solved. Their are several others adopting similar kind of approach to improve their business and the thing to wory about is that people go to them in todays modern time as well. 

Another famous baba jee that got fmae in the near past was “Dulhan wali Sarkar”. He operated in resham gali. Imagine an old amn dressed in red lehenga and wearing tons or jewellery and roaming around in the area and soon he was famous for being a supernatural kind of a person and shortly people used to come to him for praying and asked him to pray for them for their wishes to come true. And there are many other as well who use people’s ignorance to make money. People give thousands of rupees to these aalims and sometimes even more.

According to a research conducted by Journal of Pakistan Medical Association

 It was found that most people (73%) do have some superstitious beliefs. Fifty percent of people believe in them as a part of culture and tradition, another 25% got them from their elders. No significant difference was found between different racial groups. According to literacy rate, 73.5% of literate community and 94.1% illiterate community were found to have superstitions. 

 Majority of our population believes in superstitions, which are more common in illiterates. These superstitions not only predict health seeking behaviour of a person but also play a major role in shaping the response of a community to any health intervention program. 

The finding that Baluchis and Punjabis were more likely to believe in superstitions as a part of their culture and traditions whereas Muhajirs and Sindhis believed in superstitions because they were passed on to them by their elders.

But not only in Pakistan, superstition prevails in the modern world as well but in a lot lesser proportion, like the British believe that 13 is an unlucky number. Or cutting nails at night is bad luck. According to Washington post 34 percent of Americans believe in ghosts, 77 percent believe in angels and 21 percent believe in witches. So even in one of the most advanced countries people still believe in these superstitions. 

We can take the liberty and say that all the superstitions are baseless and illogical, but they must have something that invoked it, like it is superstition that a person who is balding or is bald has lot of money. Now this may seem totally baseless thing to believe, but if you ponder a little you will realize that till the time a man starts to earn well and has a handsome amount of money in his hands, that is the time when most men start balding , so this balding pattern is identical with money , but it is not like every bald man has a lot money . So, every myth or superstition has a starting point or ignition which may have become obsolete in the modern world.

Myths are remains of a time when people did not know about science or myths were used to explain things that human mind could not understand. The only way to bust myths is education and promotion if scientific culture. Only education would bring any good in this field. China one of the most progressing nation of the world is also one of the most superstitious country. So scientific culture has to take over in order to make people understand something to its core rather than just believing in it blind foldedly.

Referred back send within week i.e till Oct 17.
Are u sure it is according to outline which we discussed? I do not think so
It is written in article style, not in feature style.
Feature is always reporting based, with primary data, quoting the attributions which are relevant and interesting, supporting ur theme or idea and written in interesting manner.
It is always specific, by examples or incidents etc, do not make it general and sweeping. 
Most of the part is taken from articles of Journal of PMA
Describe ground realities, which u have seen, observed at particular place or moment
Basic purpose of feature is to provide entertainment, providing info is its secondary purpose. 
Read thoroughly what is a feature and how it is written. notes are available on FB group.

Change intro, make it catchy, which can hook up the readers. 
Add primary data. Specific fotos are needed 
Write ur name, class and roll number in the body text

Feature

(Proposal submitted with late batch)

Superstitions (heading suggests nothing, what angle aspect ur are going to write?

Syed Zain  2k17/MC/147

Introduction and origins: (Such type intro is for essay, Change intro, make it catchy, which can hook up the readers. make it current relevant)

If you are eating something and it drops out of your hand, it is not because you did not hold it properly but because someone was looking at it with lusty eyes. If you had an accident it was not because you were not driving carefully but because a black cat crossed your path , and if your child is sick, it is not because he ate something inappropriate but, because he has been hit with an evil eye. That’s Pakistani society for you. We blame totally irrelevant thing for random incidences of our lives. Mainly because we don’t understand the real cause, or we just don’t want to take the responsibility of our doings. 

Superstitions are something that have prevailed not only in our society but all over the world for a long period of time. If I was to define a superstition, I would say that it is result of the lack of knowledge of human mind.  The Human brain always seeks meaning in things, it catches patterns even they are not there, and it can be easily fooled. When our mind cannot come up with any explanation of an incident it just makes up one, just to make itself convinced that it understands, and it is not a fool. This is origination of a superstition. 

In Pakistan it is difficult to find a city or even a little town where you don’t find this “BABA PARKASH BANGALI” type of advertisements on the walls. Our society is so unscientific in its approach that it can literally believe anything. You must tell it in a frightening way only. 

So, lets go through some of the most interesting and most believed superstitions of our society.

 Most of the Pakistani people believe in evil eye. They believe that someone can cause harm to you just by thinking about you or envying from you. I would love to have that power one day but unfortunately it is just a myth. Another famous superstition is that if a crow caw on your roof then there could be a guest coming to your home. People also believe that there disease can be cured by drinking some holy water from some holy well, concept of bad spirits is also common amongst our people, and the most funny of them is that if you take too much care of your hygiene it could be an invitation to a ghost to attack you. There are thousands of them.

Hyderabad is full of these superstitious people too . People go to these weird looking baba's for the fullfillment of their wishes. they believe that the person who himself asks them for money to do some kind of chilla can solve their problem , can help them increase their income, can help them pursue theor beloved and so on . 

The babas service is not limited to these things only . They provide special services as well and in very unique and hilarious ways at time.

Just like "tanki waly baba" in hyderabad . He claims that he would just make you drink some water from his Tank and all your problems will be solved. Their are several others adopting similar kind of approach to improve their business and the thing to wory about is that people go to them in todays modern time as well. 

According to a research conducted by Journal of Pakistan Medical Association

 It was found that most people (73%) do have some superstitious beliefs. Fifty percent of people believe in them as a part of culture and tradition, another 25% got them from their elders. No significant difference was found between different racial groups. According to literacy rate, 73.5% of literate community and 94.1% illiterate community were found to have superstitions. 

 Majority of our population believes in superstitions, which are more common in illiterates. These superstitions not only predict health seeking behaviour of a person but also play a major role in shaping the response of a community to any health intervention program. 

The finding that Baluchis and Punjabis were more likely to believe in superstitions as a part of their culture and traditions whereas Muhajirs and Sindhis believed in superstitions because they were passed on to them by their elders.

But not only in Pakistan, superstition prevails in the modern world as well but in a lot lesser proportion, like the British believe that 13 is an unlucky number. Or cutting nails at night is bad luck. According to Washington post 34 percent of Americans believe in ghosts, 77 percent believe in angels and 21 percent believe in witches. So even in one of the most advanced countries people still believe in these superstitions. 

We can take the liberty and say that all the superstitions are baseless and illogical, but they must have something that invoked it, like it is superstition that a person who is balding or is bald has lot of money. Now this may seem totally baseless thing to believe, but if you ponder a little you will realize that till the time a man starts to earn well and has a handsome amount of money in his hands, that is the time when most men start balding , so this balding pattern is identical with money , but it is not like every bald man has a lot money . So, every myth or superstition has a starting point or ignition which may have become obsolete in the modern world.

Myths are remains of a time when people did not know about science or myths were used to explain things that human mind could not understand. The only way to bust myths is education and promotion if scientific culture. Only education would bring any good in this field. China one of the most progressing nation of the world is also one of the most superstitious country. So scientific culture has to take over in order to make people understand something to its core rather than just believing in it blind foldedly.