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Shopping for a better life

If you don't like toads, think again. This one could be your route to a fortune, says ANJANA RAJAN

Mention Feng Shui, mention Vaastu Shastra, and you are likely to draw vastly differing reactions. The ancient Chinese science that guides people in arranging their environment according to compatibility of elements like wood, metal, water, fire and earth has much in common with India's ancient Vaastu, but as the sceptics would say, we accept our fads in accordance with the West.

So if Feng Shui is hot in countries like the U.S., where it has evolved into a `modern' version that even includes electronic objects like computers, naturally the happening crowd in our own cities, often finding itself divorced from its cultural roots, is likely to take it up in a big way. However, we do insist on pronouncing it as it is spelled, and not `Foong-Shway' as the experts would tell you.

Certainly over the past decade, Delhi has seen a rising number of consultants raking in the fees for advising people how to reset their furniture, reconstruct their houses, redesign their offices, to gain that elusive feeling of success, peace of mind and good health.

As for fees though, Poonam Sethi, who runs a lucrative consultancy in South Delhi, points out that she does not insist on a fixed amount. Clients can even bring her a home-cooked pudding, she says, just as long as there is some offering, to make sure they don't get into "karmic debt".

Budget-friendly

As for costs, points out Mukesh Goyal of Kriti Creations, a flourishing shop in New Delhi's posh Khan Market packed with Feng Shui products, "The best part of Feng Shui is, it is budget-oriented also."

In his shop, where customers can come for free consultation with specialist Sharad Goyal, and also get free literature with the products they purchase, prices range from the relatively innocuous Rs.150 to the thousands. The success of Kriti over the past six years since it began stocking Feng Shui objects is all due to "word of mouth publicity," says Goyal.

Just as he completes his sentence, a customer holding a `yantra' meant for burning camphor, said to absorb bad vibrations and correct the `bad' energies in the atmosphere, tells him, "I bought this a few days ago. Now my friend wants one just like it."

Smiles a satisfied Goyal, "See? We don't ever advertise!"

While the shop has been in Khan Market since the complex was established, he points out, it has only become known for Feng Shui products over the last few years. But the success is so clear that Kriti will be inaugurating a new branch in West Delhi's Rajouri Garden this coming Wednesday.

If it's money you aspire to, buy a three-legged toad sitting on a bed of ingots, holding a coin in its mouth. Place it diagonally opposite your front door, but somewhat concealed from view, as under a table or couch, advises the literature.

In a land where the maid comes calling early in the morning to clean the houses of the well-heeled, it must be an added chore for the homemaker to keep the lucky toad out of the way of the jhadoo and pocha. Anyway, you can place more than one but no more than nine.

What might attract today's harassed parents of Generation Next is the dragon tortoise, which when placed in the western portion of the living room, is purported to "make your children filial, obedient and loyal to the family." It does not fail to appeal to the typically undying Indian idea of a prosperous family: "For couples with no children, it will bring many sons."

There are also good luck cats with a merrily waving arm, chimes, laughing Buddhas, dragons and the beautiful bamboo plants - for positive energy - in different shapes, sizes and receptacles, besides bead bracelets to deal with various ailments. Ideal gift solutions too.

Rebuilding

If Feng Shui can be suited to nearly every budget, Vaastu, find some people, is somewhat intractable, since it often involves reconstruction of buildings. This does not deter the believers. If they are sinking their life savings into a house of their own, they want to make sure the dwelling is right for them. Chakresh Jain, a printer in Sahibabad, and his homemaker wife Sushma bought a flat on the top floor of a housing society and made major changes according to Vaastu.

"The kitchen was placed in a direction where water should ideally have been. We consulted Rudra Kumar Dey, a Supreme Court lawyer, also known for his great knowledge of this science. I also read magazines on this subject, and a book written by a Jain aryika (woman ascetic). We found the placement of the kitchen would definitely cause conflict. So we made the kitchen where the bathroom was and vice-versa. The changes cost us an extra Rs.50,000."

VSK Annadurai, who bought a DDA flat in East Delhi, however, takes the practical line.

"DDA flats are readymade, so we can't do much. Anyway, if you start consulting these people, you'll find one keeps contradicting the other. You would spend the rest of your life tearing down walls and rebuilding them. If your heart is in the right place, the energies in your house are likely to be okay anyway," he says.

As for lighting incense and lamps - common objects in Feng Shui shops - he points out that not only are these things part of our daily culture for generations, but pleasant fragrances are nice anyway.

"After all," says this classical instrumentalist, "if musicians come for a concert wearing perfume, there is a nice atmosphere in the green room too!"

But such good-humoured scepticism does nothing to stem the tides flowing in and out of the shops and offices of those offering occult help to live a pleasant life.

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