Many holy places and shrines in South Asia are associated with healing powers, attracting a large number of believers. Is any scientific basis to these superstitious beliefs? For a long time, people have believed in the healing power of the deceased pious men that were great legends and religious ideals in their times. People believed that the gravesites of these kind-hearted individuals had magical powers. Thus, began the ritual of people travelling from far off lands to the shrines of these devout figures to get blessed by these powers. Even the water and the general atmosphere of these shrines were believed to have healing abilities. This practice has been particularly prevalent in the region of South Asia. Till date, people from around the country travel to these temples to cure the so called incurable diseases. While one group was quite firm in their beliefs of divine powers in these waters, there is another class of intellectuals that scoffed at these baseless superstitious claims. People considered it mind-baffling that one would consume such unhygienic water to cure an illness. Their rational minds could not understand how one would place so much faith in such ancient beliefs. The water of River Ganges and Jumna in India were also believed to have such healing potential. For many, this water had spirits that could remedy all illnesses and therefore they religiously consumed it and bathed in it. Things took a turn here, when in the year 1896 a great intellectual and scientist, Sir Ernest Hankin, acknowledged that the waters of these rivers have the ability to fight off the cholera bugs after he observed lessening of cholera severity in patients that bathed in these rivers. For an academic person to recognize there being some validity in these mythical claims was astonishing and even the scientific world ignored his findings. However, as time passed, different scientists observed antimicrobial ability in different waters bodies, until in the year 1917, a chemist Felix d’Herelle identified particles called the bacteriophages. These tiny agents were the magic behind the healing power of the saints. Bacteriophages, literally meaning the bacteria-eaters, are agents in the nature that can kill the bacteria. Bacteria are the infamous germs that are known to cause us many dreaded diseases. So, these bacteriophages, or phages informally, can be our weapon to fight of many types of maladies caused by the bacteria. Therefore, the scientists claim that the water and other environmental factors of these holy shrines have these phages that killed off the diseases in the people and alleviated the illnesses in them. However, as all the diseases are not caused by bacteria, therefore all the diseases are not cured by these waters. Another problem is that all the waters bodies and environments do not have the required phages to fight the given disease. So, the few people that actually get cured by these waters sure are lucky enough for having suffered from bacterial diseases and the water containing the specific phage. Furthermore, there are more chances of getting infected with different germs that from other patients that have come with the same belief of cure that there are of the chance of contacting the perfect phage that can fight one’s specific germs. Nonetheless, this discovery did open doors to a potential treatment for the bacterial diseases. With advances and research, we are now moving towards using these phages to cure many diseases in the hospitals. These agents can be exploited for our benefit and who knows, in future, we might find them to be more efficient than the current approaches for remedy. As they specifically attack the bacteria, these phages can be developed to treat many of the bacterial diseases that infect us and disrupt our everyday lives. One might think, why we would need these phages when we have perfectly capable antibiotics to kill off our bacterial infections. What reason is there for us to go through all the trouble and work to establish this new technique? Well, the answer is that the antibiotics may not work their magic in the future. It may come on as a surprise for many, but it is estimated that within a few years our most reliable drugs, the antibiotics, will lose their effectivity against the bacteria. These bacteria are the superbugs, and they can outwit the antibiotics, rendering them useless for treatment. Superbugs are quite frightening as they might end up causing many fatal diseases. As a matter of fact, it is estimated that by 2050 these superbugs may cause 10 million deaths every year, a number more that the fatalities of all the cancers combined. Most researchers consider this upcoming pandemic to be even more dreadful than the current crisis of COVID-19 as these superbugs can rarely be prevented by vaccines long-term. This is therefore a warning for us to come up with a new strategy to combat these superbugs and prevent a havoc and overwhelming deaths around the world. These phages, present in waters and specific environments of various areas, can be the agents we can use to combat this problem and safe millions of lives. Nature surely is fascinating and astounding. Who knew that a so-called superstitious belief could actually be masking a gift from the universe that might be our only weapon for survival against the superbugs in the future? So, the next time you come across a long-seated, wild superstitious belief, make sure to investigate into it. Who knows, you might end up unravelling the next great discovery of science. The writer is a student of National University of Sciences & Technology. She can be reached at khaddijakhan1999@gmail.com