SHIVANI SINGH

On July 1, Delhi woke up to the horrific news of the death of 11 members of a family in Burari. Nine of the 11 bodies were hanging from an iron grille attached to the roof. They had their eyes blindfolded, their mouths covered with tape and their ears plugged with cotton balls.

Relying on the autopsy that ruled out murder and scouring handwritten notes found in the house, Delhi Police said the deaths could have been the result of an occult ritual gone horribly wrong.

If the police theory is indeed true, the most intriguing factor was how all 11 family members, including four school and college-going students and a young professional, got on board so willingly. Although such rituals were apparently being practised for 11 years, none of them let the family secret out.

Superstitions such as a black cat crossing the path or a broken mirror bringing bad luck may seem innocuous but tragedies such as this underline the fact that so many of us willingly bet our lives on occult and black magic.

Delhi hadn’t gotten over the Burari shock when on Friday, an 18-year-old man died of snakebite in the neighbouring town of Ghaziabad. Instead of rushing him to a nearby health centre that was well stocked with antidotes, his family wasted 78 hours ferrying him to quacks, occult practitioners and snake charmers who promised to “bring him back to life”.

As the Burari tragedy demonstrated, it is wrong to assume that blind faith and superstitions are a class