What’s in 11.11.11?

Nov 11, 2011

What is it about numbers and their peculiarities that so fascinate people? The Chinese are obsessed with the number 8 and pay top yuan to get that into their phone numbers and licence plates. Others find 13 to be unlucky. Now several car buyers, prospective brides and grooms and even mothers-to-be are getting all excited about a once-in-a-century event today: the particular confluence of the date, which reads 11.11.11.
It looks symmetrical and orderly, no doubt, but is there more to it than just that? Can it be the harbinger of good fortune? Will those who wed today be happy all their lives because of it? Countless people around the world are banking on that. Even in India, where wise astrologers tell us that the number 1 has no special significance whatever, expectant mothers have booked doctors to deliver their children today. If the child pops out at 11 minutes past 11 o’clock, so much the better.
This is a bit like buying cosmic insurance. By latching on to a numerical quirk, one can feel comforted that perhaps the stars have aligned themselves to bestow good fortune. In addition, it also allows for boasting rights in the future; telling the world that you were born on a rare date can be a good conversation point. But for the vast majority of people who have no plans of doing either, getting born or married, the day will come and go with the same mundane highs and lows.

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