Setting: A cozy apartment in Toronto. It’s snowing lightly outside. Two friends, Aanya (the superstitious one) and Jordan (the rational thinker), are sipping coffee after grocery shopping. Aanya opens the closet to stash the umbrella and accidentally opens it halfway indoors.
Aanya: (gasping) Oh no, Jordan! You opened the umbrella inside! What are you doing?! That’s serious bad luck!
Jordan: (chuckling) What? I just wanted to dry it off a bit. It’s soaking wet. You think the universe is going to punish me because of my choice in umbrella etiquette?
Aanya: It’s not a joke! My aunt opened an umbrella in the house once and the very next week, her car broke down and she dropped her phone in the toilet.
Jordan: Or maybe her car was already 15 years old and she was texting in the bathroom?
Aanya: Coincidence? I think not.
Jordan: Okay, but statistically, weird stuff happens all the time. If I wore red socks and stubbed my toe, I wouldn’t start blaming the socks. Well… unless they were cursed red socks, I suppose.
Aanya: You’re mocking me now. But these superstitions exist for a reason. People pass them down because they work.
Jordan: Or because they’re memorable. Think about it—most superstitions started centuries ago when people didn’t have explanations for things. Like, opening an umbrella indoors in a cramped Victorian house might have actually hurt someone. They were huge and had metal spikes.
Aanya: So what? That means the superstition has a basis, even if it’s old. Bad things happened then, and bad things still happen now.
Jordan: True. But do you think the umbrella is some sort of… bad luck antenna? Like, it sends signals to the universe saying, “Please ruin this person’s day”?
Aanya: (laughs despite herself) Maybe it’s not the umbrella itself, but the act. You’re disrupting the natural balance of things. It’s symbolic.
Jordan: Okay, I get that. Rituals and symbols give people comfort. But there’s no scientific evidence that opening an umbrella indoors causes misfortune. If there were, insurance companies would be all over it. “Umbrella opened indoors? Sorry, we’re raising your premium.”
Aanya: Ha! Imagine that: “Bad Luck Clause 3A: No claims processed if a parasol was involved.”
Jordan: Exactly. Look, I’m not saying your experiences aren’t valid. I just think your brain is doing what all our brains do—looking for patterns. It’s how we survived in the wild. But sometimes we see connections that aren’t there.
Aanya: Like when I avoided stepping on a crack and didn’t break my mother’s back?
Jordan: Precisely! And thank goodness for that—your mom’s got a fantastic back.
Aanya: (laughs) She does yoga every day.
Jordan: See? Science.
Aanya: Alright, Professor Jordan. But tell me this: Why did your plant die the day after you made fun of my evil eye charm?
Jordan: Because I forgot to water it.
Aanya: Or because you angered the charm.
Jordan: Or because succulents are more high-maintenance than people think.
Aanya: You’re impossible.
Jordan: And you’re adorable when you’re panicking over umbrellas. But I’ll make you a deal—I’ll try not to open umbrellas indoors if you promise to question your superstitions every now and then.
Aanya: Hmm… Deal. But only because I like peace, not because I think you’re right.
Jordan: I’ll take what I can get. Now, let’s dry this evil contraption by the door, where it’s apparently safe from cosmic vengeance.
[They both laugh, sipping their coffee again. Aanya gives the umbrella one suspicious glance before moving on.]
Science Vs Superstition 
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