India's superstition super-market: Babas, maalas and more

Photographs with Rakhi Sawant, Moon Das and other small and big screen stars vie for attention with the numerous Gods and Goddesses adorning the wall of astrologer-clairvoyant Baba Shahnawaz Bengali’s office.

The smell of agarbattis wafting from the curtained-off consultation room mixes with the smell of strong perfumes worn by struggling model Akram Tanwar and TV actor Piyali Jha, who await their turn, leafing through dog-eared old editions of film glossies. We are in an industrial estate not far from the dream destination for all those in the entertainment industry - Yash Raj Studios.

While Akram says he cannot talk about his problems, Ranchi-girl Piyali is excited to talk to this writer. “My Ketu Dasha is not right and several of my auditions haven’t gone right. My roommate came to Baba and a tawiz he gave helped her,” says the 24-year old. “I’m hoping his intervention helps me too. My parents are forcing me to come back and get married. I don’t want to leave Bombay and this life,” says the Versova resident.

Inside, the bejewelled, dressed-in-black, Baba with his flashy red beard and hair asks, “Why do you think people come to me?” and begins answering the question himself. “These young boys and girls chasing glamour and money have no peace. They live fast lives with no emotional anchor so they need someone like me.” He blames the problems they face on “excessive sex and polygamous lives.” After much cajoling, he admits to charging a modest Rs 3,500 a consultation. “If they want a charm, a bracelet or anything else, it costs extra.”

Baba Shahnawaz shares the floor with another much-in-demand tarot-card reader and numerologist Rajarishi Das who charges nearly Rs5,000 per hour. In fact, the entire entertainment industry hub of Oshiwara, Lokhandwala, Versova and now extending to Malad and Goregaon is packed with gemologists, tarot card, tea-leaves and rune readers, aura diviners, tantric babas, astrologers, numerologists, past-life therapists, vastu and feng shui experts and what have you.

The outrage over Narendra Dabholkar’s murder may have brought into sharp focus the significance of superstitions and blind beliefs in our lives, but here business is booming. Both Rajrishi and Shanawaz hint at the turnover of “this business” being between Rs500-600 crores per year.

Rajrishi thinks this is a reflection of demand. His claims his guru has been consultant to some of the top stars in Bollywood. “All through the early 90s when Jeetendra was going through a tough time he was continuously in touch with my guru Baba Kadakshah. Something must have clicked, na? Today his family and the way their business has grown in both TV and films is hope for so many strugglers,” he says thrusting a plastic album forward with photos of his guru with Jeetendra and wife Shobha.  His guru who now functions out of a Lokahandwala flat and charges Rs10,000 per consultation was away in Dubai. “A client has taken him to check the vastu of his place there.”

Our raised eyebrows bring on a cynical smile. “This is nothing. Karan Johar consults his confidante-tarot card reader Sunita Menon before every single project. In fact people like Rakesh Roshan pay a bomb to a Kolkata based baba on whose advice he names all his projects with K,” he says and adds, “He produces his own films, even financing them by mortgaging his properties because he has been advised that this will bring him success. Kirron Kher too has been advised against flying on certain seat numbers by the same baba.”

When asked about the pile of charms and trinkets in the corner, Shahnawaz says he sends his assistant Samir to buy them in wholesale from Pydhonie. “They are stored in my room in Jogeshwari where we infuse them with special powers depending on what the client’s problem is. Jaise loha lohe ko kaatata hai, negative influences can be tackled by negative energies.” He points out how his guru has taught him to pray to the negative dark forces and make them his allies. “Now when I summon them, they come and I ask them to manifest themselves in the amulets and charms or even coconuts. Once these are worn, the problem gets resolved.”

Our next stop then is Pydhonie. Here Laljibhai Maoji’s shop is so well-known that a priest coming out of the famous Mumbaidevi temple points it out. The 15x18 feet shop with a mezzanine is hot as an oven even post sunset. “Baara number ki maala packet fek upar se,” he calls out to a his staff who throws it on the counter with a thud. Once the customer makes the payment,picks the packet and leaves, the Malad-resident trader in religious trinkets for over four decades and head of the association of such traders proudly tells us, “People come from Nashik, Pune and Baroda for buying our stuff in wholesale.”  According to him while beads, baubles and rudrakshas were faster moving goods till a decade ago, today it is vaastu and feng shui items that are more popular, in a Rs 300 crore per annum market. “The frogs, pyramids and yantras are the most in demand,” he says adding, “By the time they get sold for retail by astrologers you will be shocked how the price can appreciate between 200-250%.”

Shops like his are quite secular when it comes to goods. He stocks everything from tawizes inscribed ‘786’ and crucifixes which shine a bright-green in the dark. Many small kiosk owners outside Mumbai’s dargahs and churches stock their goods at the Pydhonie shops.

When we ask whether he himself believes in the power of the trinkets and charms he sells, he laughs, “Yes given their collective power in my shop, I should’ve had a larger home than Mukeshbhai’s Antilla,” but quickly adds, “It must be helping people. Why do they think they buy these things otherwise?”

Here too, despite cynicism, belief reigns. Manifest not only in the upside down black doll hanging on his shop front but also in the hurry with which he summons an assistant to man the counter till he comes back from the Picket Road Hanuman temple. “In the morning I go to the Shani idol there to offer oil unfailingly daily since Shani (Saturn) is in my stars for 7.5 years. Today I got late so I’m going in the evening.” According to him his bad luck was worsened when he accidentally looked up at the moon on the first day of Ganesha festival last year. “I am hoping my propitiation will bear fruit.”

Interestingly a 2009 survey of 12 Indian cities (by AC Nielsen-ORG-Marg) revealed a near-90 percent swing in the direction of Shani who has raced ahead of the 33 crore Gods and Godesses in the pantheon, in terms of followers. While there were only seven temples dedicated to the dark, clothed-in-black, raven-rider God who wards off bad luck a decade ago, this has grown to 226 in Mumbai alone!

At the Shani temple, Lajibhai runs into Mansukh Shah, 42, a stock broker neighbour. Shah has suffered huge losses at recent stock exchange blood bath. “This rupee sign with a line cutting across is the reason for the panvati,” he avers adding that the placement of a large metal bull sculpture outside the exchange could also be to blame. “There should have been consultation with priests on whether such a sculpture should be installed and in which direction before this was done.”

While counselling psychologist Deepak Kashyap pooh-poohs these claims, he feels the increase in superstitions is connected to the troubled times we live in. “Things are changing far too much and rapidly for people to comprehend. This adds to the stress, insecurities and fears brought on by market conditions, job losses and the high cost of living. This makes people look for something to hold on to and they give in to irrationalities.”

Kashyap does not see what he calls “qualitative difference” between superstition and religion. “The difference is merely quantitative since religion operates on a much larger scale,” he observes and adds, “This is the reason why the religious are more likely to be superstitious.”

Others like writer-columnist Shobhaa De feel, “As long as a belief does not become an obsession, every individual should have the freedom to choose.” According to her, there is nothing contradictory about respecting the beliefs of both, rationalist-activist Narendra Dabholkar and Jayant Salgaonkar, the creator of the widely popular astrology-almanac Kalnirnay. “You can be a rationalist and still be a believer,” she says.

Here’s something to chew on. Both, Dabholkar and Salgaonkar passed away on the same day. While the former was killed, the latter, died a natural death.  Mere coincidence or an arrangement by fate? You pick.


Top ten superstitions:

1)    The line running through the rupee symbol is reason for the rupee doing badly.

2)    The bull sculpture outside the BSE is resulting in stocks losing money.

3)    Having sea-food with milk or milk products will give you vitiligo

4)    A black cat crossing your path will bring you bad luck.

5)    While leaving home, if someone asks, “Where are you going?” the work you’ve set out for will not happen.

6)    A crow cawing at your door/window is indication of an unexpected guest’s arrival

7)    The sighting/hearing of an owl is an indicator of impending  death

8)    Tying a bunch of chillies, lemon and a piece of charcoal to your car/shop/home will ward off the evil eye.

9)    A woman who is menstruating should not attend weddings/naming ceremonies/religious rituals as she is impure.

10)  Giving milk/sugar/ money to others post-sunset will make the Goddess of Wealth abandon you, leaving you a pauper.