Kaali Billi

My son usually takes the public transport to go around Delhi. Some or almost all his ‘excursions’ are somewhat interesting which he narrates when he comes back home. I quite look forward to all these experiences and look forward to our rides in these famous autos of Delhi.

Here goes one of them. He was riding a short distance of about 5 kilometers to Greater Kailash and came across this auto driver with a lot of pictures of gods and goddesses on his dashboard. He had a garland over one of the idols right in the center of the windscreen, which sometimes blocked his vision. But this ‘god fearing’ driver was very confident and nosed around the heavy traffic quite fearlessly. Then suddenly, my son noticed that he came to a sudden halt on the middle of the road. There was no traffic on this late summer afternoon at 4’o clock so what could it be? My son tapped this driver’s shoulder only to later notice that there were several vehicles all waiting for an invisible red light!! Very curious, my son asked what was the reason as he was getting late for his class. This driver said that a Kaali Billi (black cat) had crossed the path and it is a bad omen to cross over to the other side till someone else had passed it first!! My son could not believe his eyes, a line of assorted vehicles behind him also were waiting for someone to cross first causing a near traffic jam! After nearly 15 minutes, they saw a car approaching and hoped with bated breath that he wouldn’t stop as well. The car driver curiously drove past unwittingly to the strange happenings of this omen. He could hear everyone heave a loud sigh of relief and carried on with their respective journeys.

Folklore - Black cat crossing your path
One of the most popular and oldest beliefs, this one is attributed to various sources. One version goes that black cats forebode doom; another goes that black cats are demons in disguise; and yet another goes that they were once pets of witches that turned into witches and hence they are witches in disguise.
Contrary to worldwide beliefs about the black cat, the Japanese consider a black cat lucky.
So the next time you see a black cat you decide whether you want turn back or walk ahead.