The Human Mind is a tricky Thing - To Watch or not to Watch!

The Human mind is a tricky thing. It makes us believe what we want to and what we believe becomes a fact and later a theory and finally a stereotype.

This in marketing is referred to as the trinity of Selective Attention, Selective Retention, and Selective Absorption. Let me illustrate.

I always believed that watching a sports match live or even a live telecast is bad luck for the team that I support. I remember Sachin scoring 186 at Rajiv Gandhi's Cricket Stadium in 1999. Dr.C.R.K Reddy and I had tickets but I refused to see Sachin in blood as I believed that my attending the match would give him bad luck.

I am not alone in this belief. Anand Mahindra of Mahendra and Mahendra and Amitabh Bachchan also believe the same. It is said that Amitabh would sit in the adjacent room and Jaya or Abhishek would relay the score.

Now with the internet, we sometimes sneak in the score surreptitiously but let me assure you with a guilty mind. To cut a long story short, Sachin scored a magnificent 186 and CRK Reddy was thrilled to watch it live. I was delighted too. I felt that It was my not seeing that allowed Sachin to score 186. If I had attended the live match he would have scored a zero (I sincerely believed that).

So I refuse to see any match where there is a lot of stress, Which means that when India is facing difficult times I would switch off. The same is the case with SRH matches or any other teams that I support. I prefer watching the highlights. The tension of close matches is too much to bear.

But things don't work out the same way as we want. Recently I had inspite of my apprehensions watched the European Championship semifinals first leg match between Real Madrid and Manchester City (I am a big fan of Manchester City). To my delight, Man City won the first leg 4-3.

The second leg was slated at 1230 hours midnight and I gave it a miss, citing to myself the famous excise "If I watch they would lose".

The next day morning the news was very disappointing. Man City lost and that too in a very dramatic fashion. They lost in a cranage that lasted just 3 minutes in the end. Real Madrid pumped in 3 goals from the 89th minute to the 92nd minute.

I was disappointed and my theory is not proving to be correct always. I even consoled myself by saying that the team lost during the regular time itself. That is in the injury time. That I declared was "pure bad luck".

But when I watched the highlights today on Sony LIV, I was taken back. At the end of the regulation time, the teams were tied 5-5. Extra 30 minutes were given and Real Madrid scored in the 2nd minute of the 30-minute extra time. So the loss was not as dramatic as I imagined. Manchester City has 28 minutes to claw themselves back into the contest but could not. So the better team won, Better luck next time Manchester City. And me, I am confused, "to watch, or not to watch"!