Mirror mirror on the wall...

From time immemorial the common folk have been obsessed with seeing the future... what it holds for them, what they can expect and if they need to be prepared for adversities. Hailing from India, the land in which astrology still flourishes, I have seen a very large variety of means by which one's future is told. There are the traditional horoscopes of course, which are to this day a deciding factor in wedding matches. Then there are face-reading, palm-reading, sole-reading, tarot cards, parrot fortune (kili josiyam - for the unfamiliar, this is where a parrot picks a card from many which holds the key to your future), vaasthu, tantriks, psychics, and God-men just to name a few other. In a land with over a billion people, with faith factor from a very large chunk of the population it is not surprising that the "industry" is a flourishing one. But it's not restricted to India, of course. Astrology (zodiac, sunsigns, blah) has it's roots in so many cultures that there are billions of believers across the world.

What is it about unlocking the future that is so fascinating to billions? Sure if it were a proven Science, many would jump the bandwagon. But that's what baffling. There is absolutely no foolproof technique to tell anything in the future from any of the above-mentioned means. The stars... your face, the lines on your palm... they are not text that is read the same way by everyone. And there is not a single proven Clairvoyant person to date. Take Nostrodamus for example. He was revered... but he wasn't as right as many believe. Also, take horoscope-matching in India, for example. Before a potential wedding, the horoscopes (birth charts - positions of stars during the birth of the person) of the bride and groom are "matched" by astrologers. I would be inclined to "believe" in all of this the least bit if any 2 astrologers came up with the same level/ percentage of matching. But guess what? Every astrologer you go to gives you a different picture. Indeed so many matches have been skirted past because either the bride's side astrologer or the groom's side has words of caution for them regarding the catastrophe ahead should the match go through (In India, a potential match maybe predicted to not just wreck the marriage, but sometimes adversely affect the health of someone in the family, all the way to death, even). Some say the couple will live happily ever after, some others say that the match is doomed. So, who are you to believe? And even if you "believed" one and went on with the match/or not and things didn't happen as predicted (big surprise), does that make the other astrologer right? I bet he would have had failings of his own. People should at the most stick to horoscope-matching as a means to filter out the many many proposals that they are likely to get for their son/daughter. It cannot be mistaken to be a "sure" thing. Which is why as a person of Science, I choose not to believe. I am sure all of these factors, the stars, the lines, blah, control some small/vague/undefined strings in the grand scheme of things as we Marionette our way through our lives... but till we know how much or how little, there is little solace in believing in a pseudoscience. Astrology doesn't stop with predicting your life together with your partner... it can tell you the kind of wealth/health you can expect, how many kids you'll have and practically everything you care to know. Surely, out of sheer chance, some of these "predictions" turn out true, sort of akin to "vibes" that even non-psychic people may have... but none of this proves anything.

I guess if it was just a prediction you'd hear and still go by your life with not too many changes, it's still okay. It's shocking to see that the most educated of the lot are also sometimes the most stupid. Take the Mumbai businessman-Tantrik story (read it here) - how twisted would one have to be to want prosperity (as if!) at such a cost? While one can be absolved for using astrological predictions as a guideline to maybe change some things in their lifestyle for the better, it should not be misconstrued to be a sureshot thing. It cannot be mistaken to be a Science. Many things in life are unpredictable... which is what makes it exciting and worth living. Imagine if everything were laid out for you in the form of "sure" predictions. How boring would it be to fulfill such a life? Some things are best left unknown. Period.