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Guinea pigs with your future, all for Rs. 3

S. Prasad

Fortune-tellers with their own unique selling proposition

PHOTO: N. BASHKARAN

THE MANAGERIE AND THE PANTHEON: As parrots and squirrels watch from their cages, a guinea pig takes its pick.

Krishnagiri: If using a mere bird to "tell" your future has become a bit passé, take this is from Tamil Nadu. Here is a group of fortune-tellers of a different kind, with their own unique selling proposition. Members of a hundred families based in Velampatti village, about 30 km from here, use guinea pigs to tell your future, while also using parrots and squirrels. They are all trained to pick a card from a pack of 27 that carry images of gods or goddesses. Based on that choice, the fortune-teller puts out his analytical spiel. Your future is with you for as little as Rs. 3.

They make a living out of this, travelling around the whole region. Right from five-year-old Parthiban to 40-year-old Madhu, the whole village is at it. In one hand each of them carry the laminated sheets and in the other a box carrying the rodent or bird.

They begin their day at 6 a.m. and travel in groups of four to five to the neighbouring districts of Salem, Namakkal, Karur, Vellore and Villupuram — when they are not working the home turf. At one stretch they stay in one place for 10 to 15 days, taking shelter at temples and covering the region.

According to Madhu, one of them, the skill has been passed on by their ancestors over four generations. It takes two years to learn the ropes. He admitted that most of them are not literate. They rely on practical experience. He said each of them earn just about Rs.25 to 30 a day, which is hardly enough to live. Business is evidently not looking up, in an age when you have a range of options to check out your future, including getting computerised predictions delivered in your mailbox.

Said one of them: "We don't want our children to follow in our footsteps."

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