ASTROLOGY- Not for me

My father was a great believer in Astrology. He had a favourite astrologer-a friend in Mumbai whom he would consult before he took any major decision or was facing any crisis in life. If the prediction was not favourable you can see him sulking for days. If it is good you can see him visibly happy and telling every one that his good times are coming. It is another matter that on many occasions the time would pass without any good happening. After his retirement he was keen to know when he would depart from this world as per his horoscope. He had got possible dates from his astrologer. You could see him get tense as the date approached . Every time `Yama` forgot to get him, he would again consult the astrologer and get revised dates. When he passed away at the age of 80, rummaging through his papers we found several notes from his astrologer on this subject, which revealed that he passed away two years before the last predicted date.

I know of many others who swear by horoscopes and astrology. They are so obsessed with astrology that nothing ever happened in their lives without the advice from their favourite astrologer. A Srilankan friend, a veteran adman, had his favourite Malayali `Josier` located in Chennai whom he would visit a couple of times ,every year. He would fly down from Colombo in the morning and return by the evening flight.

I also know of astrologers who specialize in matching horoscopes. Some very popular marriage specialists are so busy that you will have to wait for weeks before you can get an appointment from them. It is another matter that in spite of having 80% of he two horoscopes matching arranged marriages do fail these days.

And there are magazines, both English & vernacular, which feature monthly predictions based on the zodiac signs by popular astrologers. I remember both Illustrated Weekly and Sunday Standard (Sunday edition of the Indian Express) had very popular `Forecast` columns.

When Kushwant Singh the celebrity editor of Illustrated Weekly was asked, `What happened if the astrologer concerned fell ill or went on a long tour and is not in a position to give his contributions for a few weeks`. His reply was classic, `Very simple, I would study the predictions made by the astrologer for the previous few months. Most of them are standardized predictions. I would carefully choose the matter from the published issues and rotate them against the zodiacs until the astrologer returns with his column`. So much for the credibility of astrology features in magazines!

Personally, I have never allowed horoscopes to dictate my actions in life. Though the family did look at the horoscopes of spouses for my three children because the insistence of my wife, left to myself I would not have cared much about it. I believe, whatever has to happen will happen irrespective of what your horoscope predicts at any point of time. I am willing to face any situation and take the proverbial `bull by the horns` and carry on with my life instead of wasting my time dancing to the tunes of astrological predictions. Instead I go by my instincts. I know I am going through bad times when many things go wrong during certain periods of time in my life- I would avoid taking risky decisions during that period. In other times, with `courage as my companion`, I would march ahead taking bold decisions.

I am my own favourite astrologer!