Taste of success: While on a visit to the World Trade Centre, New York, in July 2001, he told people there that he was getting negative vibrations from the place and that it wouldn’t last long. On September, as he predicted, the WTC came crashing down.
Clientele: The Ambanis are supposed to have consulted him. India’s leading politicians and industrialists are also his clients.
Fees: Varies between Rs 1,000 and Rs 5,000.
BEJAN DARUWALLA, MUMBAI
Expertise: Indian and Western Astrology, Hebrew kabala of numbers, Tarot, runes, I-Ching, palmistry
Qualifications: Born to wealthy Parsi parents who did not encourage his forays into the occult, Daruwalla obtained his knowledge through books and his interaction with fortune-tellers. He is part of the International Federation of Astrologers and has even been named in the Harper Collins’ compedium of The 100 Great Astrologers in the Last 1000 Years.
Taste of success: He had predicted the success of Subhash Ghai’s Kalicharan and that the late Morarjee Desai would become the deputy prime minister one day. In Outlook magazine (Nov 15, 1999) he had predicted that in 2003, cricketer Sachin Tendulkar would perform so well that the headlines would declare ‘Tendulkar versus the rest of the world’. He had also gone on record to say that actor Shah Rukh Khan’s only enemy is his health and operations are in the offing. In September 2000, he had declared that Bill Gates would soon be showering his generosity and largesse on India. Yet he admits, “I am only human, sometimes I do go wrong.”
Clientele: The late Dhirubhai Ambani, Raj Kapoor and Ramkrishna Bajaj, Prime Minister AB Vajpayee, and others from the world of film and business.
Fees: Varies from person to person, but he strictly sees only one person per day, by appointment.
SUSHIL CHATURVEDI, MUMBAI
Expertise: Astrology
Qualifications: BE (Electronics) and an MBA from England. He has been predicting the future since the age of 12. After his studies abroad, he came to India for a short while in 1975. A bhrigu rishi in Hoshiarpur (Punjab) told him that his future lay in astrology. He was asked to go to Kuber-bhoomi (the land of wealth), so Chaturvedi came to Mumbai. He did his mantra-jaap, chandrika yagna and Devaushodhi, and got attainment within three years.
Taste of success: He predicted the assassinations of Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi, the divorce of Prince Charles and Lady Diana and the BJP’s coming to power at the Centre in February 1996.