Habeeb Ali and his unusual passion of 'Ramal Shastra'

This story was written after a two month research on ‘ramal shastra’ and of course after going though a personal experience with Late Syed Habeeb Ali or fondly known as Lal Miyan Baba in Bhopal. During my stint with Hindustan Times in Bhopal I got a very close friend Ritu Raj Mate who was very close to Baba and he was the one who intorduced me to him. I fondly remember him who was very soft spoken and would tell you of your past before telling your future. Most palmists today never tell you of your past but will dwell only on you future. So I visited him fortnightly once to learn more about my future and also learn a little on what this ‘ramal shastra’ is all about. How it is calculated, so on and so forth. After more than 10 visits to him he finally showed a palm map marked of his studies he had undertaken for nearly thirty years after he quit healthy job from the Bhopal BHEL center. He used to tell me that how his wife in the beginning shouted at him but later reconciled to the fact that I was learning a subject which many do not dare to dredge.

What is Ramal Shastra?
The ‘Ramal Shastra’ is an astrological program to solve the intricate problems of life. The ‘Ramal Shastra’ is derived from Old Indian Epic "THE MAHABHARAT" and as old as ISLAMIC BELIEVE of the first human on this universe "ADAM" he used to use ‘ramal shastra’ to know his solution.
The short method with out using hard math and detail. Ramal shastra is related to question and answer! some time with dice too!
In Ramal (Arabic astrology) Shastra, the prediction is made without kundali (horoscope). There is no need of any kind of horoscope. There are only dices, called ‘kura’ in Arabic, in the hands of the person asking the question. The dices are thrown only on right places. These dices form certain figure on that basis prediction is made. There is no need of knowing the name of the person, his parent’s name, date of birth, panchang etc. The person is presented before the expert Ramal astrologist. If the person cannot be present before the expert for some reasons, then he can also send a questionnaire to the experts regarding his concerns.
The second house of the Ramal Shastra decides the prospect of profit in business. This Shastra has 16 houses. These houses are related to past, present and future. The person should ask when and how will he get profit. If in the second house, the figure is holy or ‘nazar-i-mikrna’, then the circumstances are positive for good business. If the figure is ‘sabit’, then there can be delay in profit. If there is sakal-atwe-kharij or kabjul kharij pratham, then the fate of that person is weak and there can be no profit.
If the second house shows the figure of Saturn planet or has a dot, then the person has no fate and he will continue to be the same for the time to come. If there is “nazar-i-mikrana” or “nazar-i-tarakik”, then he will find the treasure trove. He may get gold coins or gold ornaments. If the second house shows the unholy figure, then that person will remain poor for the whole life. He will be totally deprived and no body will come to his rescue.
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Sixty –Eight –year-old Syed Habeeb Ali of Jehangirabad is a man who left a cushy job to pursue his unusual passion. A passion that he has not turned into a profession, much against his family members. Ali is one of the few persons in India who uses the complex ‘Ramal Shastra’ for fortune telling and has got quite a high profile clientele.
Syed Habeeb Ali fondly known as – Lal Miyan among his followers, says that he learned the calculations of ‘Ramal Shastra’ from Guru Nandu in Khandwa in the early 1960’s and had to give up the passion after his mother and wife forced him to do so. But after working in BHEL as fitter for 15 years he quit the job to pursue his old love. Now, since the last 25 years Lal Miyan who hails from Hasura Village near Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh, India, has been practicing the complex fortune telling method from his small but comfortable home.
When asked how he got interested in the subject, Lal Miyan says that he had met his guru Nandu through a friend and liked the subject because the texts are mostly written in Arabic and Persian. Hi said that his teacher made the subject very easy to learn and thus sustained his interest.

When asked how he got interested in the subject, Lal Miyan says that he had met his guru Nandu through a friend and liked the subject because the texts are mostly written in Arabic and Persian. Hi said that his teacher made the subject very easy to learn and thus sustained his interest.
When asked how his parents, who were staunch followers of Islamic tenets, react to his choice, Lal Miyan said that his father was easy about it but his mother told him if he needs to learn the subject which is forbidden in the community he should leave the house.
Explaining the basics of the complex subject, he said that the subject is very difficult and the deeper one goes into it he more questions get answered, and more helpful it becomes for the day-to-day problems. Lal Miyan says that the Ramal basically has 1,110 sub- subjects and has 16 points out of which 15 are used and then doubled to make them 30 days of a month.
The fortune teller says that his community members did not look upon his passion kindly, but this hardly bothered him. Now he is in the process of writing a book on ‘Ramal Shastra’ in Urdu and Hindi. He says that he has created a new palmistry chart, which if looked into will make even a common man understand the subject. Habeeb Ali says that since ‘Ramal Shastra’ is mostly written in Arabic and Persian it is easy for him to translate it into Urdu but is facing a problem of translating it into Hindi because of the lack of translatable words.
Syed Habbeb Ali has a huge following for his Ramal Shastra and a good number of his clients are high profile, but like good professional he refuses to disclose their names. He hints that several highly placed politicians regularly visit him and get a peek into their future using the shastra.
Lal Miyan says that it would be good if the State or central government make ‘Ramal Shastra’ as a subject in schools or colleges so that the knowledge of the ancient and valuable shastra continues and it broadens the mind of the newer generation.
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The picture shows my close friend Ritu Raj Mate (red shirt) and me at a hill during one of our treks into the kerwa jungles near Bhopal.