Naadi Jyotsam

It has been a long time since I wrote something

That is possibly because I am getting caught up in worldly work of earning my sustenance. However today, I took a break..............a break apart from the ritual weekend one…..it also helped that I was not in the pink of my health…..

So the day was spent alone in my new abode.

And my new abode......... this time …………seems to be a good place. It is in a secluded area but in the midst of a marketplace. It has a kitchen, a fridge a TV and a sofa set too.

Some hot chocolate in front of a TV on a sofa, I almost felt at home ………

It is funny what you intend to look forward to when you have nothing ....when the datum is low any improvement shows.

Solitude is charming, and also inspiring. And, today’s “ Good morning “, call, to Amma fired this thought , so here I go after quite a long time.

This is true, very true.

Just now I was reminded about my visit to some village in middle of Thanjavur .The reason I am reminded of this another such visit by Amma, which again lends credulity to the earlier visit.(Ok Amma I am not writing  about it, nary you worry !)

Now this Thanjavur “naadi jythosa” is commercial, but he has a good track record. Amma insisted that I go there. It was before my B-School tenure when I was in the business of hustling for direct personal gain, and was not really adhering to a socially accepted role for an educated madrasis family offspring.

Anyways I had to be in Chennai for sorting out some house and non house issues, and I saw no harm in going for a visit.

The place was doing justice to a mystical Indian sages abode. It was quite cut off from the city, and had thatched roofs. Men with gleaming coconut oil laced hair and in spotless white clothes were in some cubicles collecting the thumb impression samples. The thatched house had the top floor with some partitions for one on one session with the astrologers.

I am neither a cynic nor a skeptic; it takes time for me to get used to an idea that it.

I gave my thumb impression along with brothers and sisters. We waited before being summoned to one of the thatched rooms. It was Spartan, two plastic chairs and one table. “Neelkamal” stickers showed clean and slightly contemporary as opposed to the surrounding we were in.

There were some rectangular blocks, about an inch thick. They had some strips of parchment, which were tied up with some sort of sting, and smelled faintly of wood.

I was intrigued, did that parchment block really tell me about my life?

The astrologer started reciting in a singsong voice. I could fathom bits and pieces of what he was saying. It seemed like a Tamil song, but more classical in recitation. However, it was unlike any I had heard till now. Chittapa could understand perfectly, and he kept shaking his head negative to all what he was saying.

The astrologer closed the block, and picked up another. The same sequence was repeated, the singsong recitation………. And the negative head shakes from Chittapa.

Another and another, till it was five blocks down and no success. I was funnily reminded of Harry Potter selecting his wand. 

The astrologer was also it seemed inspired from Ollivanders, he wasn’t going to give up. He excused and went down.

I took advantage of his absence and asked Chittapa, “What is the language he is speaking, it does sound like Tamil”.

“It is Tamil, you wouldn’t understand “, was the condescending remark.

I deserve it, as I shrugged the barb away, I cannot read or write my mother tongue, simply because I had never bothered to learn.

It was half an hour before the pundit returned with 2 scrolls.

The first he opened was akin to the previous 5, it was making no sense at all, however after a couple of minute I heard the following and I remember it vividly and quote it here verbatim

Your name is Srikant…………father’s name…….. Rajanarayanan……..mother’s name……..Radha……….you have 2 siblings…….. Deepa and Navneeth……….your education deals with, with oil or metal……..you are living with parents……. family, born on October 8^th, 1984.

And with that my Chittapa gave a satisfied nod. The astrologer then proceeded to draw the ritual lagna chart. He finished in a couple of seconds and handed it over to my Chittapa and it was an exact match to what had been created by our family pundit.

I was astounded………..with only my thumb he could give my entire background, right to my family history!!Now that is amazing.

The same fate of information and history revelation was repeated with my sister and brother and it all cross tallied. I was then told about my past life and some of the sins I had committed which it seems to be impacting my life in some way. He added some more tit bits of very sensitive information which I dare not disclose on a blog

I paid him; a bit extra than I was instructed by Amma, for I was truly amazed by his work. As a parting shot, when we were leaving, he told

“The scroll on you, was hidden, I had not used it till now”………….slightly lowering his tenor, he said, “not in the past thirty years ………that is………..I hope you do good”.

Aha…that was not in any way going to reduce the obnoxious attitude I was believed to be carrying with me, anyways I smiled and thanked him.