Stepping on a lemon on the road is believed to bring harm, as it may be enchanted

Scene: Two friends, Ravi and Arjun, are walking down a busy street in Chennai. They are carrying coffee in hand, chatting about weekend plans. Suddenly, Ravi yelps and jumps aside.

Ravi: (pointing down) Dai! Careful! There’s a lemon on the road. Don’t step on it!

Arjun: (raising an eyebrow) It’s just a lemon, Ravi. What’s the big deal?

Ravi: (whispering dramatically) You don’t know, macha. Someone might have done black magic on it. If you step on it, bad luck will follow you! Health problems, financial issues… sometimes even ghosts!

Arjun: (chuckling) Ghosts? From a citrus fruit? What are they going to do, squeeze the life out of me?

Ravi: (dead serious) Laugh all you want. My cousin Karthik once stepped on a lemon outside his tuition centre. The next week, his bike was stolen. Coincidence? I don’t think so.

Arjun: (grinning) Or maybe he forgot to lock his bike properly? You know Chennai thieves don’t wait for a lemon to attack, right?

Ravi: (crossing his arms) Bro, you can’t explain everything with logic. Some things are just… beyond science.

Arjun: I get what you’re saying, but hear me out. Think about it: if stepping on a lemon had real magical consequences, hospitals would be full of “lemon victims,” and insurance companies would have “lemon coverage plans.”

Ravi: (laughing despite himself) Maybe they should! “Sir, did you meet with an accident, or did you step on a suspicious lemon?”

Arjun: Exactly! See how silly it sounds? Humans are pattern-seeking creatures. We connect random events. Step on lemon — bike gets stolen — so we assume cause and effect. But how many times have you not stepped on a lemon and still had a bad day?

Ravi: (thinking) Hmm… Plenty of times, honestly.

Arjun: And how many times have you accidentally stepped on a lemon and nothing happened?

Ravi: Well… okay, once. Last month, near Anna Nagar. I even slipped a bit. But I was totally fine.

Arjun: (playfully) So the lemon failed you, my friend! Must have been a defective model.

Ravi: (grinning) Or maybe my luck was stronger that day.

Arjun: See? You’re giving credit to your luck, not the lemon! That’s what I’m saying. It’s what’s inside us — how we think, how careful we are — not some poor fruit crushed underfoot.

Ravi: (reluctantly) You’re making too much sense, da. It’s confusing my brain.

Arjun: Good! Confusion is the first step toward enlightenment. Next step: stepping on every lemon you see and declaring independence from superstition!

Ravi: (laughing) Aiyo, not so fast! Baby steps. First, maybe I’ll just… stop crossing the road in panic every time I see one.

Arjun: Deal. And next time, we’ll buy lemons and make lemonade. Better use for them than fear, right?

Ravi: (smiling) Right. But if anything spooky happens tonight, I’m calling you at 2 a.m. Be ready!

Arjun: (grinning) Deal! I’ll answer with a glass of lemonade in hand.

[They walk off, still chuckling, as a street vendor shouts “Mosambi juice! Fresh lemon soda!” in the background.]