Fast forward to 1966. I was in my 3rd Year of my Engineering degree at IIT Madras. I was the beginning of the term. During the summer holidays my Dad took ill with an enlarged prostate that blocked the passage of urine & was admitted in General Hospital Madras but they would not operate as he was extremely hypertensive.
Mean while my aunt had consulted an astrologist and I heard her telling my mother that my fathers star and my star were at logger heads and it meant only one of us would survive. Death was on the cards. I felt shattered hearing this whispering going on. I told my mother "don't believe in all this Bull shit Amma", we are not going to die. Stop worrying unnecessarily.
I had to get back to the hostel on Sunday evening so I could attend classes the next morning. I said bye to my mother got on my bicycle and rode off
Reached a suburb called Mandavalli and I was cycling behind another cyclist who had a blue plastic bucket at the back in the carrier. It must have contained something as it was covered with some news paper.
Then there was this big Red Leyland Public Transport bus overtaking us.
There was a sudden gust of wind and the "chilli powder" from the bucket hit me straight in both my eyes and blinded me instantly and I just fell with my Bike and also heard the bus braking hard.
Next I was surrounded by people as it always happens in accident scenes in India.
I heard this lady screaming in Tamil "Ayyoooo, little more the bus wheel would have crushed his head".
Yes my head was right under the front wheel of the Bus. The bus driver and conductor and other good samaritans carried me and made me sit on the pavement and some one realised I had chilli powder all over my face and brought a bucket of water and washed my face and eyes, telling me how lucky I was. Meanwhile the fellow with the bucket full of chilli powder continued his journey merrily, oblivious to the fact that his chilli powder almost got me killed
So having survived a freak accident then, I was thinking of what my aunt Rajathamma had told my mother about my astrological stars.
A few days later my father died in the hospital from a massive heart attack making the astrologers prediction come true. I survived and my dad Died
Should Astrology be studied as a science ? As an engineer and University educated I have been indoctrinated into believing that astrology is all bunkum. But a life time of 72 years I have seen so many astrological predictions come true making me want to believe it is in fact a science but too far fetched for the average mind to be taught this as a science subject.
I think I will include on Chapter on all astrological predictions that have materialised in my life.
Mean while my aunt had consulted an astrologist and I heard her telling my mother that my fathers star and my star were at logger heads and it meant only one of us would survive. Death was on the cards. I felt shattered hearing this whispering going on. I told my mother "don't believe in all this Bull shit Amma", we are not going to die. Stop worrying unnecessarily.
I had to get back to the hostel on Sunday evening so I could attend classes the next morning. I said bye to my mother got on my bicycle and rode off
Reached a suburb called Mandavalli and I was cycling behind another cyclist who had a blue plastic bucket at the back in the carrier. It must have contained something as it was covered with some news paper.
Standard Indian Bicycle in the Sixties
Then there was this big Red Leyland Public Transport bus overtaking us.
Madras Public Transport in the Sixties
There was a sudden gust of wind and the "chilli powder" from the bucket hit me straight in both my eyes and blinded me instantly and I just fell with my Bike and also heard the bus braking hard.
Next I was surrounded by people as it always happens in accident scenes in India.
I heard this lady screaming in Tamil "Ayyoooo, little more the bus wheel would have crushed his head".
Yes my head was right under the front wheel of the Bus. The bus driver and conductor and other good samaritans carried me and made me sit on the pavement and some one realised I had chilli powder all over my face and brought a bucket of water and washed my face and eyes, telling me how lucky I was. Meanwhile the fellow with the bucket full of chilli powder continued his journey merrily, oblivious to the fact that his chilli powder almost got me killed
So having survived a freak accident then, I was thinking of what my aunt Rajathamma had told my mother about my astrological stars.
A few days later my father died in the hospital from a massive heart attack making the astrologers prediction come true. I survived and my dad Died
Should Astrology be studied as a science ? As an engineer and University educated I have been indoctrinated into believing that astrology is all bunkum. But a life time of 72 years I have seen so many astrological predictions come true making me want to believe it is in fact a science but too far fetched for the average mind to be taught this as a science subject.
I think I will include on Chapter on all astrological predictions that have materialised in my life.
