I called up my parents during the weekend, which is a customary three-way conference call that includes sis in Kuwait, parents in India and me in US of A. My parents are in Kerala at my grandma's place. My mom's school is closed for Diwali vacations as is the norm with all schools in India. After the customary enquiries between everyone and my mom's extended summary about trips to various temples in Kerala. Vini (my sis) then asked mom to convert the summaries into full-fledged short stories. I am not complaining about mom's storytelling capabilities, but all the stories weave around some flash strike in Kerala for some ungodly demand accompanied with unexpected rains or floods. It's as if 'God's own Country' is always at God's receiving end. LOL !!!
But that's not what shocked me. Apparently my parents decided to visit the local astrologer and show our horoscopes. Now 'astrologers' are the true parasites in Kerala. Their profession is always in boom. When people are happy, they visit the astrologer to know what their future looks like. During sad times, people visit the astrologer to know what they must do to avoid more obstacles. No matter whether it's an economic boom or an economic slump, astrologers make a lot of money. Again it's the fault of the people who believe in them and foster their trade. My sis is married and living happily with her family. I don't understand what more can an astrologer foresee for her and what more should be known. It's best if some things are left unknown. How can your life be fun, when you know what to expect from it? It seems that the astrologer predicted that I would be studying more. That was a very stupid prediction. I am sure I would have wrung his neck, because here I am trying to finish my PhD and graduate asap. I wish the astrologer foresaw that I am happy with MG and contented to be surrounded with my friends. I wish he could put sense into my parents by using reverse psychology and tell them to accept MG as their ideal DIL. But then that would make the astrologer lose his bread and butter. Instead he told some crap about the doom/destruction that would befall if I married someone whose horoscope did not match. If I only knew who made horoscopes in the first place ..grrrrrrrrrr !!!
In any case, that's the sorry state of affairs in Kerala. I don't think my PhD in these economic times makes sense. Probably I should go to Kerala and join as an apprentice under some famous astrologer and learn the trade. The first thing I would predict then would be about the finicky stock markets !!!
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