Triskaidekaphobia in God’s Own Country

By vinodnarayan on May 26, 2016 • ( 0 )

So Kerala elections are done and the LDF comes to power. In God’s own country out of 19 ministers 16 took the oath in the name of the Indian Constitution instead of God while 3 stayed true to the state’s marketing slogan. The imaginary God lost. All is good till here, but even now Triskaidekaphobia seems to be prevalent in the circle.

‘Triskaidekaphobia’ is considered a phobia; a word coined in 1911 from Greek tris meaning “three”, kai meaning “and”, deka meaning “10” and phobos meaning “fear” or “morbid fear”. Triskaidekaphobia is the fear of the number 13 and avoidance to use it. we all are quite familiar with people living with that fear 🙂

And why Triskaidekaphobia in God’s Own Country? No number 13 Car for ministers. Some say it is because the previous Government did not have it and since new allotments are not there they chose to abandon the poor number 13 and it is not fear. Well who knows because it is said that in 2006, in the VS Achuthanandan cabinet, then education minister MA Baby opted for it to break the stigma attached to the number. So if someone wants to break the stigma, they can do it even now. Some things have to be repeatedly broken to get drilled into the mind of the people

So as an Atheist from God’s own country I give you all a nice 13 to eat up your ‘Triskaidekaphobia’ today. Interestingly it is not about my state alone, this stigma with 13 is there with many folks in the world across cultures and across religions and across geographies. Be it ‘The Last Supper’ or ‘Knights Templar’ or because you always find the 13th leaf in a tree fall, what ever be your reason here is some good news.

Understand that in Italy 13 is considered a Lucky number. Especially in gambling. The expression ‘fare tredici’ means ‘To Do 13’ meaning ‘hit the Jackpot’. But Italians are not without Phobia and have 13 replaced by 17 as the unlucky number. And the reason? When 17 is written using Roman numerals XVII, it can be rearranged to spell the Roman word VIXI meaning “I have lived” and was found on ancient tombstones. When written using Arabic numerals 17 is still considered unlucky since it resembles a man hanging from a gallows. How Nice…. And finally you all know our Indian Italian connection yet 13 is blamed instead of 17 irrespective of who comes to power 🙂

On another note 13 is a great number. All kids look forward to it, to be a teen. To enter into that great time in life where you very surely realize and understand and are grief stricken with the fact that how big Morons your parents turn out to be. Well I was kidding, Teen is a great time to be and a time when you really start sharing ideas with parents and looking at life. I have read some amazing stuff written by Teens which has opened my world view to things I never saw as a Teen. So 13 is not bad, it is great, if our future generation looks forward for that number for years, and we all celebrate that ‘becoming a teen’. It is high time the adults get over with their Triskaidekaphobia

Again a beautiful 13 to you 🙂