Astrologers are very common in India. They are met with in every big town. Once I happened to go to Patiala. There I met a lot of them. They have set up a sort of regular market in Patiala. This curious feature of the town attracts the attention of every new comer to the city. I was no exception.
Right from the railway station up to the secretariat of the former Pepsu Government, I saw a number of them squatting on the footpath of the road. They were selling predictions to their customers at rates fixed according to the size of the customer’s purse and the bargaining capacity of the astrologer.
The minimum amount charged was Rupees 50/-. They were carrying on a roaring trade. They found a good clientele among the litigants hailing from villages. Students who were shortly expecting the announcement of University results were also seen patronizing them in a pretty large number.
They were doing a lot of intelligent canvassing to attract customers from among the people pacing up and down the pavements of the Mall. They scanned and surveyed from head to foot almost every passerby and concentrated their attention only on persons who did not seem to be in a hurry.
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After catching the eye of a potential customer, they flung at him some enigmatic and provocative remark to sharpen his desire to know all the good luck that was in store for him. Such remarks almost invariably proved effective in attracting customers.
Some astrologers, clad as illiterate villagers, aroused the curiosity of prospective customers by uttering a few mugged up sentences in English. One of the astrologers kept a transistor with him. Its music helped him a lot to catch the eye of the people. I saw a rich man taking an astrologer to his house for private consultations about his future.
In India there are hereditary astrologers. They keep roaming about and sometimes go abroad also as palmists and fortunetellers. They are very clever and intelligent.
They are psychologists and read a man’s heart from his face, talks, movements and gait.