Superstition : n. The belief that particular events happen in a way that cannot be explained by reason or science; the belief that particular events bring good or bad luck.

There’s no shortage of superstitions in the world. For some, it’s as simple as crossing the path of a black cat. For others, it gets as complicated as wearing the same pair of underpants to every important event in their life.

As you can clearly see, most superstitions addle the brain to such an extent that all notions of common sense, rational thought, and more often than not, hygienic behaviour, disappear into thin air. These are then replaced by nonsensical, childish and sometimes just plain psychotic behaviour.

And yet, no matter how practical we may pride ourselves on being, we all fall prey to superstition at some time or another. Be it the fiercest agnostics whispering, “Please God, please God, please God,” repeatedly before an examination or the biggest misers tossing pennies into a wishing well, we all want that extra boost to push us along in our otherwise sluggish lives.

Behavioural psychologist B. F. Skinner tried out the following experiment with a group of pigeons. He placed them in a cage and fed them at periodic intervals without any reference to their behaviour at the time. He discovered that the pigeons, associating whatever actions they had been performing at the time of being fed, continued to perform the same actions. This behaviour shed some light on human superstitious behaviour. An accidental connection between a ritual and favourable (or not) consequences leads to the establishment of a belief that is very hard to shake.

It’s all about your attitude. That is, if the passing avian decides to bless you with its excreta, and you take it as a sign of good luck, there is a better chance your day will go well. Similarly with tall ladders, crunchy apples and broken mirrors.

Having said that though, making up (and subsequently selling) superstitions is a profitable business. If you are creative and wily enough, you can make even your worst enemy dance to a Himesh Reshammiya song in the middle of a public garden dressed like Govinda. Not only that, the enemy in question will thank you profusely and slip a thousand rupee note into your hand after you have guaranteed that this bizarre ritual will result in stupendous success in his latest venture.

On that cheery note, I must warn you that if you don’t read the remaining articles in this issue of Whackk, the evil spirits from the Pinkk section (trust me, they’re scary) will haunt you forever. Happy reading!