Cosmic Bluff

An obscure corridor on the first floor of Select Citywalk, usually the most neglected area in India's most buzzing mall was also bustling with activity this past weekend. Select was holding its first Astrology Fair with very interesting sounding stalls: Palmistry, numerology, Kundli making, Tarot card reading, Reiki and meditation and Vaastu Vigyan. Pandits in traditional clothing stood behind the stalls, while a crystal healer covered in gem stones urged passers-by to stop for consultation. One stall was selling a variety of salts for bone pains and luck. There was another that claimed to cure depression and anxiety. Needless to say, many shoppers were transfixed, moving around in a trance like state just at the happy sight of an endless supply of soothsayers and fortune tellers. A manager from Select tells me that they've been holding a flea market in the same corridor every Wednesday for the last three years, and the most successful stall in the flea was the tarot card reader, who'd easily hold between 30-50 consultations over a 5-hour time span.

"We thought, why not get a variety of faith healers together for our shoppers?" says Harpreet Suri, the PRO of the mall. Why not, indeed. A study in the UK some years ago suggested between 50 to 60 per cent of newspaper readers religiously read their horoscopes. I read my own in three different papers every day. No matter how far we progress in science and technology,

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