Magician demystifies ‘black magic’

ABRACADABRA: Magician Krantikar tries to demystify black magic through a presentation at a magic show in Vijayawada on Friday.


VIJAYAWADA: As hundreds of girls watched curiously, ‘black magic’ was performed on a doll made of cotton in the seminar hall of Sri Durga Malleswara Siddhartha Mahila Kalasala on Friday.
Attired in black robes, magician Krantikar sprinkled turmeric and vermilion on the doll. In a few minutes, fumes began to emanate from the doll, while he asked the girls who watched him in a daze: “Do you believe that black magic can be performed on someone?”
Even as the girls remained perplexed, he continued: “As students of chemistry, you all know what will happen when potassium permanganate is mixed with glycerine. I mixed the chemical in vermilion and used glycerine instead of water to perform this so-called black magic.”
Coming out from a state of surprise, the girls gave a round of thunderous applause and said in unison that they would not believe in black magic or anything like that anymore. Combination of science
The special magic show, organised by the Chemistry Department of the college, saw Krantikar using various chemicals to prove that several beliefs were actually myths. “Magic is a combination of physics and mathematics. Magicians rarely use equations of chemistry in their shows, as it is very difficult to handle several chemicals of inflammable nature,” he said, before explaining the concept behind ‘Baanamathi,’ a well-known form of black magic.
As part of the show, he seriously looked at a matchstick and asked it to light up.
To the surprise of everyone, the matchstick ignited itself.
The secret behind it, as Krantikar explained, was dipping the matchstick in sulphuric acid before using it in the show.
“These are small tricks that are used widely by the so-called sorcerers in villages. We can create fumes in an empty bottle with the help of a few drops of ammonium and hydrochloric acid. By applying mercuric chloride to photo frames made of aluminium, we can make them produce a powder, which can be shown as ‘vibhoothi’ to gullible people,” he said.
Advising students to learn magic to improve their confidence levels, Krantikar said it was easy to learn a few tricks and he was ready to take classes for the interested ones. College principal J. Vasantha Kumari, head of the chemistry department S. Kalpana and others were present.