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The morning’s cold and chilly. A sullen figure walks down the streets, his hurried footsteps causing a slight rustle on the fallen leaves. Shoulders drooping, eyebrows cringed in thought; he walked on.

 He’d walked out of his home in fury having fought with his mother over what seemed a trivial issue: his mom had forced him to wear an astrological ring on his finger that she believed would protect him from a terminal disease that he was about to contract. Or so the astrologer had told him. Theirs had always been a rational family. And Raja couldn’t believe how his mom, a student of science, had fallen for such shameless dependency on astrology. It infuriated him. If rings could solve every problem in one’s life, why not wear a thousand rings and leave everything else to destiny?

 
 
He came back home.  He was surfing through the television channels when a reality show caught his attention. He had been watching the past few episodes and found it intriguing. "Raaz Pichley Janam Ka", hosted by Ravi Kissen took the participant through a process called past life regression by hypnosis to address problems that bothered the subject in this life. The therapy was conducted by psychologist Dr. Trupti Jayin who brought back memories of the subject’s past life, the suggestions and a series of questions to the hypnotized person.
 
Past life regression has been mentioned in the Upanishads of ancient India and more so in the Yoga sutras of Patanjali. In the West, it was popularized by Madame Blavatsky of the Theosophical Society, and thus is part of both Occidental and Oriental psychotherapy. But experiments have suggested quite strongly that the main factors affecting the memories of past lives are—a belief in reincarnation and suggestions by the therapist. It has mostly been seen that the memories recalled are very vivid in detail, and undistinguishable from actual memories of true events, but historically inaccurate, having been formed from a combination of past experiences, knowledge, imagination and suggestion by the hypnotist, and also the urge to recall a past life. Studies have shown that believers of reincarnations were the ones to provide very vivid accounts of their past lives while ones who didn’t, were unable to recall any significant stories.
What is intriguing is that, in the 21st century, shows that uphold only popular beliefs and have no scientific explanation, are being aired and even becoming popular—not just among the less educated sections but even amongst those who are ‘modern’ in their outlook. Yes, take Raja for example. Or a million others like him. While the youth of today’s India is intent on claiming their commitment towards unhindered progress, yet, their day must begin with the sight of something lucky. Yet, they must stop to let a cat cross the road, and yet, they’ll sit watching people recalling their previous re-incarnations. Why? Is it because ‘death’ and ‘life after death’ are mysteries still unraveled by any kind of science or because Man must create suitable explanations to make himself feel secure or because, perhaps that this one subject leaves the imagination run free and wild? Perhaps, because Belief is everything that drives man. What he believes he can do, he succeeds in doing. It is yet to be proven how much of what is shown is credible and how much is made up for the sake of making it a show. But what comes through is that the modern India is still an ambiguous ground and not surely headed towards a definite direction—neither towards complete detachment from popular beliefs( in fact it’s far from it) but it is somewhat ready to bring forward some changes. It is still looking forward to a day when shows such as these will not be watched because of faith and belief, but in pure mocking disbelief.