july 22: who wants to get a devil-head from me as their souveniur gift?

Above picture: Your doing exactly what he wants you to do.

I have come across quite a few of these demon fellows. Their mugs are painted on the sides of factories all over Southern India. The factories will be five-plus stories high and the demons face will cover the whole distance. It is unnerving.

At first, I didn't understand why some well-known Indian companies would want to put a 5-story-high demon-face on the side of their factory. You'd think that they would bring bad luck, or at the very least, be damaging to the company's brand image.

On further inquiry, I found that the satan-heads do quite the opposite. They bring on good luck, and help keep positive brand image.

How? Well, most Hindus are very superstitious. They think that if people stare at their factory it will bring bad luck to the company. So, they put up demon-faces to take peoples' stares off of the actual factory.

Lesson of the day: If you want to bring bad luck to a Hindu factory, stare at the non-demon areas.