(Audrey) A few days ago I was sitting in a library in Bikaner, quietly doing my work while the librarian was sitting across from me quietly doing his work. It was a fine scene so far as I was concerned, but then the astrologer walked in. He was wearing a bright yellow kurta and white pants, far too pure white for India. He promptly interrupted my work by asking me a variety of typical questions, such as What are you doing here? Where did you learn Hindi? You are from which country? What do you study? This was all fine, but then he came out with My name is ____ and I’m a professional astrologer. Put your hands on the table and let me read them.
I don’t believe in such stuff but what can you do? I was working in a community library and this guy was from the community. Plus, the librarian made no attempt to stop him, so I complied and put my hands in plain view. The astrologer told me five things. The first four were as follows—
Your heart is weak.
You are going to die in India.
When you were between the ages of 24 and 26 you cheated on your boyfriend.
You are a strong leader like Hitler.
At the end, he did at least add the plausibly non-insulting prediction—
You will become a religious saint. Whether in Jainism or Christianity I don’t know, but you will become a saint.
I almost responded to this series of proclamations by saying f*** you very much. But I thought better of it (not that he would have understood me if I had said it in English anyways) and simply rolled my eyes and attempted to return to my work. I don’t know the protocol on telling somebody’s fortune in India, but I do know basics of social interaction and telling somebody that they are promiscuous is definitely not okay, never mind that they’re going to die! The Hitler thing gets a little more interesting as many Indians have a bizarre and unexamined respect for Hitler (see earlier post here). And I’m going to become a saint? Well, if idiot astrologers don’t stop interrupting my work I’m never going to become a professor, am I!
Tags: astrologer, astrology, Bikaner, future, India, library, palm reading, prediction
March 24, 2010 at 2:37 am |
Wow. Well, tsk tsk for cheating, Audrey, and be sure to keep your love of power and hatred for humanity in check. hah. You showed remarkable constraint. But yeah, what really could you do!?