Interview with Ahsan Azim Transcript

1. What is your name?
   1. Ahsan Azim
2. Where are you from in Pakistan?
   1. Lahore
3. Did you grow up in Pakistan? How long have you lived there?
   1. Partially; lived there about half my life (i.e. ~ 10 yrs).
4. What is your ethnicity? (Punjabi/Pashtun/Sindhi/Balochi etc?)
   1. Punjabi
5. Do you think that growing up, people around you believed in things that did not always have a logical explanation (for example, seeing a black cat means you will have bad luck for the rest of the day?)?
   1. Definitely
6. Did you yourself believe in a lot of such things?
   1. Pretty much
7. In Pakistan, what should one do if they want to avoid bad luck?
   1. No black cats
   2. No knocking down bee hives (this may not be very universal)
8. What should they do to make sure they have good luck?
   1. Nothing comes to mind in particular.
9. What should you do if you want a good marriage?
   1. Be rich
   2. Be attractive (i.e. have fair skin)
   3. Not sure if either of the above two qualify as superstitions.
10. Do you have any strange rules about food that do not have a logical explanation (for example: don’t drink milk after eating fish)?
    1. No fish before milk was definitely a thing,
    2. No others come to mind in particular.
11. Do you know any other superstitions?
    1. Never mentioning or discussing bad dreams (expanded upon in # 14).
12. What is one superstition that has really played a role in your life and that you believed growing up?
    1. Never discussing bad dreams! I’m pretty sure this is widespread (at least it was in my extended family), and I keep to the rule really strictly. Basically you don’t discuss details of your bad dreams, because if you do, then they come true!
13. Do you think that superstitions play a big role in Pakistan?
    1. Overall I’d lean towards yes, but obviously it varies with social class and education.