Of Stars and the Telegraph

I love the Telegraph. I was under the impression that the it's the ultimate, universal paper, lurking in every corner of every house. But like most of my impressions, this one turned out to be a rosy shade of false. The Telegraph may be the most popular paper in Kolkata, I have yet to visit a friend in Kolkata whose house does not harbour this herald of the daily bustle, but strangely, the Telegraph does not seem to have a large customer base in the south. In Vellore, we get 'The Hindu' and 'The Chronicle' and other alien junk. These cannot compare to the Telegraph! I mean, they don't even have that familiar astrology or comic section that I'm accustomed to. Surely, they don't expect me to bother myself with 'news' early in the morning. For the love of God, I live in an obscure part of the world where news of the world hardly affects me! I can't get through the day without two very essential items of my existence - one, my morning coffee( Frankly, the only reason I wake up at 7 for), and two, the fuckin' astrology section in the paper! Don't get me wrong, I'm not the kind of guy who resigns himself to a fate his stars plan out for him, such a philosophy does not agree with my better judgement, it's metaphysically unsound and frankly, quite an abomination. I don't need stones to get my life on track and I don't need charts of indecipherable gibble-gabble to tell me how my life has turned out. I don't believe any supernatural force could be bothered enough to choose the card that will dictate my destiny. And I don't fuckin' believe that the lines on my hand have any purpose, any concealed messages that hold divine power! Practises bordering on the occult, questions dealing with life and death do hold some mystery and yes, I do find them intriguing, but 'astrology' with all it's various ramifications is something of an anomaly, a humourless, double-edged impossibility, with each edge of the blade at war with its own twin.

You may find it somewhat amusing then, that I, one who so detests the very people who blindly drown in the ephemeral sea of stars and planets, would hold the astrological section of the daily paper as such an essential part of my life. I find the reason somewhat amusing. The reason is habit. Maybe it's because it's reminiscent of days spent back home, musing over my day's prediction. But I need that printed line telling me what to expect from the day. It's hardly ever accurate, and I hardly ever remember what it said, but sometimes, sometimes it does come true. I wait for those times. I cherish those times. You'd think I'd be mad at the part of me that says "I told you so!", but I seldom am. Today I'm ambivalent to what my horoscope predicted and how it turned out. It went -

'Do - Reconcile
Don't - Be withdrawn
Expect- A hectic social life'

Until about five minutes ago, I could've put a cross beside each of the above statements. I was not withdrawn today, yeah, there are times I'm completely hidden behind a cocoon that only looks like I do, but today I was quite amenable. I was expecting a hectic social life till about 2 o' clock in the afternoon when the plans for a dinner reunion went 'clunk'. So the only social life I experienced was an afternoon with my mother spent watching 'Ghajini'. All that leaves is a reconciliation. About five minutes ago, I met a friend I had no hopes of getting together with before I leave. A brief 5 minute chat....yet, a reconciliation I suppose.

So, you see, by some twisted mechanism of Fate, these predictions do have a way of coming true. Note that despite my skeptical view on astrology, I believe whole-heartedly in sunsigns and all that they entail. True, this is a part of one massive body, ie, astrology, but these are based more on observation than any mystical notion. So, for the greater part, they are accurate. I don't quite know why I posted, but the day's Telegraph lying folded and sly, on the table seems to have awakened my not-so-latent craving for the keyboard.

Both the people who comment seem to be busy studying for their exams....Damn my stars!