horoscopes

The Horoscopes

Vellore is a microcosm of the rest of India. The people are deeply religious, superstitious and swayed by “horoscopes, vastu and numerology”. Ill-luck is seldom accepted as such. It is either because the vastu of the house is not correct, or because of the evil eye of someone else or black magic.

Huge amounts of money are spent on changing gates, altering houses , moving the kitchen,  altering names with legal gazette notices. Not that it really made any difference to the fortunes or health of the people concerned.

The wealthy bus owner had married his cousin. He was fifteen years older than her. She looked like she could be his daughter. The idea behind this marriage contract was to keep the property and buses in the family. Their horoscopes matched and a grand alliance was fixed.

Five years into the marriage, they did not have any children. No heir no spare. They went to all the temples and darghas nearby, wherever they heard stories of success. They were always disappointed.

Part of the problem was that he never left her alone in these places. Success usually came after the woman spent a couple of nights alone there with fasting and prayer.

Fifteen years passed and they turned up in my clinic saying she had FINALLY missed her period. The pregnancy test was negative. After blood tests and scans it became obvious that she was in premature perimenopause. To complicate matters further, he had a very low sperm count. They wanted to try IVF.

Another three years passed. By then she was well and truly in menopause.

“What shall we do?” they wailed. “There is all this money and property. Who will look after us when we grow old?”

I tried to explain that having children was not a guarantee of geriatric care, but to no avail. Apparently there were sundry relatives waiting on the sidelines, snickering and happy that they were in line for an economic windfall. I suggested adoption.

They got a lovely baby girl, who matured into an intelligent good looking young woman. They decided to search for a groom. There was no horoscope so things got a bit tricky. No one knew her time of birth.

“You don’t need a horoscope” I said, “Her star is obviously good. How else would she have come from an orphanage to this nice house, parents, education and family.” No dice.

“Perhaps you can fake a good horoscope--- They do it with computers now a days.“

They were unwilling. Apparently bad alliances meant death for various members of the family.

The prospective groom’s families were not convinced that the horoscope was “lost.” They wanted it rewritten. The numerology was a disaster. It was really difficult  to change her name or its spelling after she had graduated.

A money grubbing relative came forward with her son. As a great concession she said, “we will overlook any ill-luck and disaster she may bring. Sign over the property to our name.”

The girl took matters into her own hands.

“I want to do my MBA and then run the business. If some one comes to marry me after that so be it.” She was adamant. She twisted her parents around her little finger.

He sent her to UK to do her MBA. Perhaps she will return. Perhaps that was her destiny all along.