A 19-year-old man caused a three-car crash as he drove through a tunnel northwest of Portland, in the US state of Oregon. He told investigators he fainted while holding his breath as he passed through the tunnel.

However, it is not clear why he held his breath for that particular stretch of the journey. But some people do hold their breath in tunnels as part of a superstition.

Most of us would deny that we are superstitious, but I think certain beliefs, however illogical they may seem to be, do hold sway over our actions. We hear of sportspeople having a favourite shirt that they might have worn during a match that their team won. Sometimes, even spectators believe they bring their team luck if they wear a certain item of clothing while viewing a match!

As children, we were convinced that catching sight of a lone raven was a bad omen. So, if we spotted one just before going to school, fingers would be crossed and the wait would begin for a red postal van to pass by. Only when one saw a vehicle of this hue did one uncross one’s fingers. Sometimes the wait was long, but we managed to do all the tasks required without the help of two digits. After a while, the red postal van became a rare sight and so the vehicle to be spotted became a black car.

Then we moved to another city where there were very few ravens. Even as I wondered what was the harbinger of bad luck in this new place, I saw a schoolmate with digits crossed. So, I asked her what she had seen. Her answer was the ubiquitous mynah. Needless to say, this superstition was almost always observed by girls.

Coming to the UAE, I soon realised that it had a sizeable mynah population. So, I find myself constantly crossing fingers. Old habits die hard. Thankfully, there is no dearth of black vehicles here.

There are many superstitions connected to footwear. This brings to mind the practice of removing one’s shoes when entering some houses in India. This is to prevent tracking dust and dirt into the house, which is presumably clean. So, if you live in a building here with many Indian residents and you are not familiar with this custom, you may be bewildered to see a pile of shoes at doorways. You might even wonder what caused people to shed their footwear in such a hurry and whether there’s an emergency. But you don’t need to panic the next time you see such a sight.

The problem for neatness freaks is when people discard their shoes or sandals without taking care to see that they are right side up. An upside down shoe is not a happy sign for superstitious folk. Although I do not expect my guests to kick off their shoes, I must admit the sight of shoes upside down does bother me. When I pass by a doorway and see this offensive sight, I am tempted to turn them all over — right side up. However, I imagine someone peeping through the spy hole from the other side just as I stop by to set things right. It would be difficult to explain my neatness fetish in such circumstances.

Speaking of shoes, remember the one Cinderella left behind when she left the ball in a hurry (no, she didn’t play football or cricket)? And then the prince’s men went around the kingdom with her shoe perched on a cushion for all the young ladies to try on. Well, I do believe that that shoe was given undue importance. I would never dream of making mine recline on such a soft bed. Unless, of course, it were a Jimmy Choo!