Fortune-tellers still rule the roost

Hyderabad: The man in 21st century who is totally dependent on science and technology still craves to know his future from crystal ball gazers. India since ages has its own community of oracles engaged in evincing future of their customers. Today it’s a business on the streets for astrologers selling fortune tales to customers on the move. Many young folks are seen at the streets crooning with fortune-tellers who set up shops on cloth mats with a pack of specially made cards and a parrot in a cage.

The fortune-tellers read the future of a person by reading the cards picked up by the parrot or reading the palm galore with twisted and crooked lines. They are not bothered whether they are true or false, but they say it is about the feeling of constructing an identity and they are only concerned about that. Fortune-telling is widespread in the city with predictions usually based on vedic astrology including people’s names, time of birth, zodiac signs, facial features and palmistry.

At Necklace Road there are more than 20 fortune-tellers who look for prospective clients every day. And around 15 of them accept payments online through apps like Paytm. The rate for unwarranted future predictions and prophecies is fixed at Rs 50 per customer. Each astrologer sees around 15 customers in their fortune every day to make a living. In a month they see more than 200 customers consisting of mostly youth and students. The street-smart oracles employ all sorts of methods including age old vedic panchangs, traditional position of navgrahas, parrots picking-up cards and palm readings to make believe the customers.

Many of the fortune-tellers found at Necklace Road are from Maharashtra which has a huge community of astrologers. Since ages they have been in this business visiting various cities and telling future of their customers. Not every fortune teller has to be from the same background some of them individually choose to be one. More customers visit the fortune-teller with a parrot. The parrot comes and picks a fortune card, whose secrets are deciphered by the prophecy vendor. It depends on the zodiac sign picked up by the parakeet. The parrot is trained by the guru which does not listen to any other person other than its owner.

All the fortune-tellers have the same thing to say, “The freedom of parrot is important and many times we leave them out of the cage, but they do not go anywhere they come back to us. There were times we make the parrot fly away and let them go but the parrots always come back to us. We cannot help they are happy being with us. P Ramu, a young fortune-teller said, “I have done my Intermediate recently but because of the bad financial conditions I could not continue my education and joined the community of fortune-tellers.” People believe in science or prophecies we are not bothered, we just earn our livelihood through this profession, he adds.

Krishna, the most experienced in the profession said, “We are into this business as we are not well-educated, and we do not find jobs easily.” “We run the business here on the street because most of them come here to spend time leisurely and many are found interested to know about their future,” he further adds.

BY Vandana Sharma