T he next time you finish your cup of coffee, don’t wash it. Instead, scrutinise the coffee dregs, and you might just see your future staring back at you: If the dregs are to the left of the handle, then the painful past is over; if you see a goat on right side of your cup it is a danger sign, if it is a bell then unexpected news will change your life,if it is a balloon then a minor problem is on its way and if you spot a diamond, then marriage may be on the cards. Or so the coffee cup readers claim.
Foretelling the future by reading coffee dregs is not yet a scientifically proven method, to say the least, but it is intriguing nevertheless. So, with a mixture of wide-eyed curiosity, I and a hyper-sceptical colleague headed for Bandra to meet Mumbai’s only known coffee cup reader, Simran Singh.
Singh was only 12 when she was initiated into coffee cup reading by a neighbour while living in Afghanistan. “It took me two years to understand coffee cup reading. By the time I was 15, I was reading the coffee dregs of friends at parties,” says Singh, who has recently started reading coffee cups in her Bandra parlour for a modest fee of Rs 2000 for every cup read.
Seated in her room with pictures of Shiva and Durga, nothing about Singh suggests I’m in the company of a psychic. But Singh informs me matter-of-factly that she “receives messages from the other world”. Just then the lights are dimmed, the curtains are drawn, coffee is served and my mind screeches, “pre-planned!”
I inspect the cup, nothing unusual there; then I peep in hoping for a latte or an espresso but all I get is the richly-brewed bitter Turkish coffee that Singh specially imports from Turkey. The reason: Turkish coffee alone leaves enough dregs to be able to read the future.
We gulp the whole thing down even though Singh had asked us to leave behind dregs, a full quarter cup’s worth. In quick succession, we place the saucer over the cup, move it thrice in a clockwise direction, and place it upside down. With the cups all drained out, we turn them over, though not before placing our right thumbs over the cups and asking a question about our future. This is tough: Which part of the future does one want foretold? We voted for a general overview of the months to come: career, love, and life in general.
I wondered if these random patterns really had my future written down in cryptic form. “The patterns are interpreted according to what they mean and where they are placed,” said Singh, pointing out the patterns our dregs had formed — a spade, a man, a tiger, and the number 7.
The inside of the cup, Singh explained, is divided into seven rings to the left and right of the cup handle. “They signify the past seven months and the next seven months respectively. Each ring signifies a month. The patterns for each month pertain to events that will occur or have already taken place.”
Thankfully, the dregs in my cup were all on the left side, suggesting that my unhappy past was behind me; the clear right side promised a better future. Singh reeled off a few facts about my past and she was right to an extend.
As we walked out, I decided I’d watch out for my predictions in the months to come. As for my companion, “I’d much rather have clean coffee cups,” she said.
You can contact Simran Singh at 9323151950
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