Setting: A narrow street in Lahore, just outside a tea stall. It’s around sunset. Two friends, Zoya (the superstitious one) and Areeb (the rational one), are walking home after work.
Zoya: [suddenly stops walking]
Areeb! Gasps Stop! Don’t move!
Areeb: [confused]
What happened? Did I step on something?
Zoya: [points dramatically]
A black cat just crossed the road! Uff, this is bad. Grabs his hand tightly and fake-spits three times over her shoulder “Thu! Thu! Thu!”
Areeb: [pulls his hand away, amused]
Zoya! Seriously? You almost hawked in my face! And why are you spitting like a malfunctioning sprinkler?
Zoya:
It’s a black cat, Areeb. You know what that means! Bad luck is lurking. I’m not taking any chances. We have to reverse it.
Areeb:
Reverse it? What are we, in a magic show? Look, the poor cat probably just spotted a juicy rat and sprinted across the street. It doesn’t even know you exist.
Zoya: [crosses her arms]
You always laugh at this, but last month—remember when that black cat crossed right before I went to the dentist? That same evening, my wisdom tooth got infected. I was in bed for a week!
Areeb: [grinning]
Zoya, you went to the dentist because your tooth was already hurting. That cat didn’t curse you; your sweet tooth did.
Zoya:
Fine, what about last year? We were heading to that job interview—you, me, and black cat number three. I didn’t spit, and I didn’t hold your hand. Guess who didn’t get the job?
Areeb:
Me! Because I bombed the interview. I kept calling the manager “Uncle” instead of “Sir” because I thought he was your dad’s friend!
Zoya: [laughs despite herself]
Okay, that was awkward. But still—coincidence after coincidence? Can all of them be just… nothing?
Areeb: [sincerely]
Look, I get that it feels real. Superstitions give us a sense of control, especially when things are uncertain. But if you track only the times the cat crossed and things went wrong, and ignore all the times nothing happened… that’s not evidence. That’s just selective memory.
Zoya:
So you’re saying centuries of people spitting and holding hands for nothing?
Areeb:
I’m saying centuries of people needed something to blame when life threw lemons at them. It was easier to say “bad luck” than “random chaos.”
Zoya: [pauses, then grins]
But the hand-holding part isn’t so bad. I mean, if you’re scared and cute, might as well cling to someone, right?
Areeb: [mock serious]
Ahh, so that’s the real superstition here—free excuses for hand-holding.
Zoya: [laughs]
Caught me. But seriously, don’t you have any irrational habits?
Areeb: [thinks]
I do knock on wood sometimes. But mostly to shut my mom up when she says, “Beta, you’re so healthy these days.”
Zoya:
There you go! You’re not 100% logic either. We’re all a little weird.
Areeb:
True. But next time, can we not spit in public? People are going to think we’re part of some underground sorcery cult.
Zoya: [winks]
Only if you hold my hand next time too. Just in case.
Areeb:
Fine. But if we get chased by a real black panther one day, you’re on your own.
[They walk off laughing, the black cat now lounging peacefully in a corner, blissfully unaware of the existential crisis it just caused.]
Science Vs Superstition 
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