You
will find them near places of worship, beaches and tourist hubs in
India, streetside traditional fortune tellers, men and women alike,
who claim to offer expertise to interpret your destiny from the
arrangement of lines on your palm, the alignment of stars or even the
fortune card-choices of a wise bird.
The
fortune tellers themselves are flambuoyant personalities, sometimes
wearing elaborate headgear or sporting distinctive insignia on their
foreheads. The women, usually elderly and 'wise-looking' are more
often than not, dressed in a traditional attire typical of the
region, usually a saree. Some of them also double as witchdoctors and
shamans, selling the means to reverse negativity through amulets and
potions.
Kili-josiyam
('fortune fortold by the parakeet') entails an arrangement of
symbolic cards, much like the tarot deck, laid face-down on a mat.
From its bedecked cage, the parrot is let out and prompted to pick a
card that will symbolise the fortune of the seeker which is then
interpreted by the teller. The palm-reader sometimes has an elaborate
chart as a prop, to explain what each line means. Palm-reading women
sometimes carry a basket and a small stick to point out the destiny
written on your palm. There is also a type of fortune teller who does
house-visits, usually beating a 'damru', wearing an elaborate turban
and dressed in a coat over his more traditional and humble attire.
For
a more contemporary experience, one can always have one's fortune
read by a robot flashing psychedelic lights.
An edited version of the article was published in Culturama's September 2012 Issue.
No comments:
Post a Comment