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.

Tsunami - Three Years Later

The below story was published in the Bangalore Mirror edition on the 26th December, 2007. Since I was back in the garden city after a gap of more than 14 years, working in New Delhi, Bhopal and Mumbai, got very interested to do a lot of stories so that my old friends could know that I am back in town. So when the 3rd Tsunami anniversary was going to be observed I hit upon this idea to cover the Bangaloreans who had witnessed the Tsunami havoc and survived, to retell a tale of how they managed to survive. So my close friend in BM Jacob Benjamin knew of one family which had lost 6 of their member during their annual visit to Velankani which was one of the worst affected by the tsunami carnage. Jacob and me started to work on the story one week in advance and started to link one family to another and so on till we managed to get 5 families which had either lost a member or survived to tell their story.
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Bangalore Mirror visited five families on the eve of the 3rd anniversary of the tsunami, and found that December 26, 2004 has left deep scars on the hearts of tsunami survivors.

HAUNTED BY NIGHTMARES OF VELANKANI

Mention Velankani, and 10-year-old Lilly Jennifer still shrinks back in fear. It has been three years since she went to the holy shrine on the beach front with 15 other family members, but the tsunami ordeal is etched deeply into her mind.
'I wake up with nightmares almost every night with thoughts of hundreds of dead bodies around me,' she says trying to hold back tears. 'I was six years old and my father Lawrence and mother Sagailatha saved all our family members lives. They ensured that all our family members were pulled into the church,' she recalls.

'I was playing with my sisters Lourth Daina (8 years) and Sagai Sindhu (7 years) along the beach and all the others were sitting on the beach and watching us,' she recalls. And the waters came gushing in.... On December 26, 2004, more than 1.5 laks people were washed away by the gushing waters of the sea. Christening a child at Velankani is a ritual in many families in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. Lilly's family is one among them. In 2004, they were there for the christening of little James, Lilly's cousin. 'I will never go to Velankani for christening my children,' she says vehemently.

THREE FRIENDS WHO SURVIVED

Luke and John Bosco were swimming in the calm waters. All of a sudden, they were taken up by the powerful waters - right up to the height of a coconut tree.
Luke emerged from the water once and was sucked back inside. He woke up an hour later on the terrace of a two-storey building 500 meters from the shore. John was holding onto the fishing net which was stuck to an advertising board on the same building. 'It is god's fortune that we survived and keep going to Velankani every year to thank Mother Mary for showing mrcy on us,' they say.
Luke had a broken arm while John had fractures in a leg and an arm. 'We then searched for Cedric, our friend who was with his nephew. We found Cedric with a cut in is stomach and both his hands and legs broken. We mustered enough strength to lift him to the closest medical camp.'

LOST HER PARENTS, BUT SAVED HER CHILDREN

Not all families are as lucky as the Lawrence family. Mary Agatha lost her parents and younger sister to the angry seas, but managed to save her two children and herself.
Holding back tears, she recalls that fateful day when her parents Albert (62) and Anjalina (58) left for Nagapattinam early in the morning with her younger sister Mary Basilica (28) to buy fish.
'They left me with my children Mary Margaret (3) an Shashi Kumar (6) in the room and said they would return after purchasing fish from the wholesale market 15 kilometers away. They hired an auto rickshaw around 8:15 am and were suposed to return by 9:30 am.'
Suddenly, the walls of the room broke and the water gushed in. 'All I could see was black water all around me as I held my son's wrist tight and kept my daughter on my hip and ran to the top-most floor of the hotel.
From there, I could see the water reaching the top of coconut trees. Hundreds of people were rushing towards the hotel terrace. All around there was water, and people were trying to latch onto whatever came their way. Children were being washed away in the muddy waters,' she recalls in horror.

Later, she spoke to the driver of the auto while searching for her family at the government hospital at Nagapattinam. The driver told her that they had purchased 2 KG of fish and were heading back towards Velankani. In the auto they were discussing various family issues, planning next year's visit, and her sister was regretting the fact that her husband Ravi was not with them.
The auto driver suddenly saw huge waves of water gushing out of the sea towards the road. He jumped out of the running auto only to wake up in the hospital with almost all his limbs broken.
Agatha called her brother Christy from Bangalore and together they searched for their parents and sister all over Nagapattinam. They found the mangled remins of the auto on the beach front, but could not find their parents and sister. 'That is when I realised that I had lost my parents and sister,' she sys.
'Ravi Kumar, my sister's husband, is staying in KGF and has refused to remarry. He visits Nagapattinam every year to pray for the soul of his wife and my parents. I am unable to since I fear the sea and cannot afford to go there,' Agatha adds.

VERY FEW SURVIVORS

Cedric Daily, hails from an Anglo-Indian family. He lost his father, mother, sister, niece and nephew in the tsunami. Eleven members of the family travelled to Velankani, but only five of them came back. Cedric is now in Velankani to offer his third year of rememberence for his lost relatives. Thomas Daily the Uncle of Cedric shared his family's story with us:
'On that fateful day I had got up very early and taken my gransons Rocky and Shane for a walk along the beach and fun with them till 8:30 am. I then brought them back to the room where the rest of the family members were ready to attend the 9:30 am mass. They asked me to have a bath and meet them at the church. That was the last time I saw them alive.
As I got down from the room to walk up to the church, I could see a lot of cows and some people running towards me shouting that water has entered the town. I did not have enough time to even think as the gushing waters came and took me with it. I kept looking for something to hold, and I finally got the fence of the Home for the Aged. I held onto the railings as tightly as possible.
I do not know how long I was there, but when the water receded below my hip level, I gathered enough courage and started searching for my family. Sirst, I saw my nephew walking alone stark naked without any clothes and asked him where the rest of them were. He started crying and I realised that they had been killed or washed away, and in a fit of rage I started cursing the gods.

I saw my brother Eugene Daily. His body was stuck between a door and a boat. Then I saw my grandson Rocky. His body was atop a lamp post with half his head missing. I continued to search for others. I saw Luke standing alone on the beach and gazing at the sand. He told me that he was looking for Shane who was with hime when the waters came in.
Later in the afternoon, I saw my niece Marina Daily and granddaughter Carron Daily. Their bodies were lined up along with hundreds of other bodies. I left the bodies of the all the four members for the mass burial as they were badly damaged.
Every three months, I visit Velankani in the hope that some day God will show me the living faces o my Grandson Shane Daily and sister-in law Rosaline Daily. Some of the locals say that they saw a boy being picked up by another family and a lady who is disturbed was seen roaming the streets of Velankani.

Snake Dance at Cubbon Park

This story and pictures so happened when I was sitting and whiling away time at the Press Club of Bangalore in Cubbon Park, with old friends from the same fraternity as me on the 24th of November, 2207.
All of a sudden there was commotion in the park area just outside the club premises and as all photojournalists react to any emergency situation we all ran out and witnessed an interesting fight between a Snake and two parakeets that were perched atop the same tree. This was nature at its best since we the humans have occupied their space and so the onus was left to them to fight for their living space.
A bloody battle raged for more than one hour before a snake catcher came to the rescue and the parakeets were given their space atop the tree. But not before the parakeets had wounded the snake in its tail and had chased it from one tree branch to another tree branch thus showing us that one need not be strong to defeat the guile of the faces of terror or for that matter a schemer who is plotting another’s downfall, but instead work as a team to defeat it or them.
A lesson learnt from the parakeets I discussed this story with the Editor K R Srinivas of the Bangalore Mirror were I was previously working, he reacted and said that take the help of Vaishalli Chandra to write the copy and we will run it as our page one story for the day.
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Two parakeets versus a snake. Not a fair battle, is it? Certainly not! Bangaloreans who were strolling through Cubbon Park on a lazy Saturday afternoon thought so too. That’s why they rescued the poor snake from the angry parakeets.
It may appear bizarre, but the logic-defying scene was witnessed by several people at Cubbon Park. A seven-foot-long rat snake in search of lunch was making its way up a tree, only it chose the wrong nest. For the nest belonged to two parakeets who were determined to protect their young.
A crowd gathered below while the wild ones battled it out above. Slithering from tree to tree, the hapless rat snake tried to reach the while the green pair did their best to dissuade their unwelcome guest. The people watched – some excited, some scared, but most of them had a chill run down their spine just being in the presence of a snake.
However nothing deterred the birds. Face-to face with the snake, they were just lunch. Clearly, they had their strategy worked out. So they went for its tail instead. Taking turns, they had the rat snake nicely cornered. The crowd could only look on in awe at the strategic placement of the birds. Perched on the adjacent branches, the birds took turns to attack the snake. The ringed Indian parakeets went full throttle attacking the snake and injuring it tail, all in a bid to save their nest.
The drama was, however, far from over. While the good Samaritan was placing the snake in the bag, the hassled and scared snake attacked its saviour. Though trained to rescue snakes, the bite left Mohan a little shaken.
On reaching the ground, he cleaned his wound. He also brought the snake out of the bag and cleaned its tail. Mohan assured the crowd that the bite wasn’t poisonous. An impromptu lesson in snake safety and he was on his way. The snake treated and released in the wilderness around Bangalore.

The rat snake making its way up the tree branches in search of its lunch as it comes face to face with the two parakeets perched atop the same tree.

The rat snake tries to approach the parakeets who were guarding their nest.

The Rat snake slithers cunningly across from one branch to another to get to it lunch even as the two parakeets watch carefully on the move and size up on how to counter attack it.

The assault on the creepy reptile with one parakeet facing him and the other pecking at it's tail. this they did for more than 10 minutes taking turns to fly around in a circle thus ensuring the snake to move little at a time and also making sure that the snake retreat in a haste.




Finally the rescue of the frightened and hurt snake by snake catcher Mohan who climbs the tree to get the rat snake then give a few moments to relax in a bag and wash its wounds on it tail inflicted by the two member team parakeets, before showing the rescued snake to the frenzy fotog clicking away to the tummy fill.

Shooting - Patrick French

These images taken by me during an interview with Patrick French in Bangalore at the launch of his latest book on 'The World Is What It Is' a biography on Sir V.S. Naipaul, a Nobel Prize winner in Literature in 2001 and knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1990.
Anil Nair the Senior Editor with the Bangalore Mirror and me had gone for the interview Patrick French at The Park Hotel where he was staying on his two day trip. The moment we reached the hotel he was already being interviewed by another newspaper correspondent, so we waited for another 10 minutes and then had the chance to start our interview.
Partick French like most Britishers never liked to look at the camera and that proved as a plus point for me since I was able to get good portraits of him. What I liked about Patrick French is that he was very natural in behavior and calm in his approach to answer questions fired at him by Anil Nair.

Noted biographer Patrick French in an exclusive interview with Bangalore Mirror during the launch of his new book, 'The World Is What It Is' in Bangalore on May 4, 2008. The book is a biography on Sir V.S. Naipaul, a Nobel Prize winner in Literature in 2001 and knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1990.

British Actress Nicky Bingham Teaches art of Acting to Children

These photos were shot during a children’s programme at the Bal Bhavan children park in Bangalore. When I visited that event thinking that it will be another painting or craft making for children, to my surprise I saw this British actress and teacher Nicky Bingham imparting the art of acting to some 150 odd children all huddled up with full attention to every word and action she was making. The parents of these were standing in the backdrop to also learn some acting lessons.

Nicky also told these children as to how her long journey in acting started and what changed her course to also impart these finer techniques of natural acting.
Nicky told the attentive children that “When I was a child, I always knew that acting was in my blood. Some people tried to deter me because of its unstable nature but as soon as I went to drama school at 21, I knew I had found my home,” and added that when she chose to travel with a touring theatre company to South America, little did she know this was a decision that was going to change her life.
“I moved to Argentina for a year, we were based in Buenos Aires and touring the surrounding countries. When the tour finished, I stayed on for a couple of months and was offered a permanent job working in the acting field. I was actually getting more work in Argentina than I was in London,” she told the crowd who started to cheer her. Nicky Bingham style of acting and teaching is unique, she says that the audience should first understand what you as an actor is trying to convey through your words and action as this is gauged by them, once you have them in your sway then you have to build that tempo so that they end up not only watching your performance but remember it for a long period of their life.

Nicky also told them that what one as to do as an actor and as a teacher in acting. “When you’re in a play you are part of a team and you only have your character to think about. There are challenges, you constantly have to think of other people and work with others.
But as a teacher “you are on your own, you are responsible for everything: for all the characters, the narrative and for not missing out the crucial events. It’s hard because I’m responsible for the whole audience,” she told the children who by then had already gone through some real story telling by her. One may not be surprised I they get to see some of these students hitting the acting scene shortly with the lessons learnt from Nicky Bingham and give their senior actors a run for their money.

Locks Are Key To Health Here

This story below which was published in the Bangalore Mirror edition dated March 6, 2008 came about after my wife who read the Tamil newspapers said that such a thing happens even today in a city which as shunned religious beliefs and have taken up to god man’s who preach what our grandparents had once told all of us during our favorite bed time stories. So I quickly went to the Bowring hospital and spend some time and learned that how faith can turn one’s life from the almost gone to a win-win situation.
I then discussed this story with my editors and they gave a few points which I will have to look into and than develop the story. What you get to see down is a ground work of more than 3 days since Pushparaj was away from Bangalore the first three days. And another thing that changed my presupposition of the English dailies being the best to the local lingual dailies giving more apt and comprehensible news than the fluff and bluff which the English dailies churn out day in and day out.

Cutting up bodies in the post-mortem department and running a temple in the vicinity are all in a day’s work for 54-year-old Pushparaj, a fourth-generation employee of Bowring Hospital in Shivajinagar. According to him, the idols of Muneeshwara and Katteri-amma were found at the hospital site in the 1880s by his great-grandfather Muniyappa, and the family has tended to the temple built to house the idols ever since.

Pushparaj near his family run temple inside the Bowring hospital (left), and of the main building which houses the OPD near the main entrance of the hopistal (right).

The temple’s renown is such that people from all walks of life, including doctors, judges, students and relatives of patients, offer prayers here. Most of the devotees claim their prayers have been answered.
According to Pushparaj, his great-grandfather Muniyappa, a dafedar at the hospital during British rule, found the idols while they were digging the site for the construction of the first hospital building in 1882. The British did not want idols kept inside the premises, but seeing the resentment of their Hindu employees, allowed the shrine to come up. “Later, the temple had to be shifted as another building was coming up, and was relocated near the main gate of the hospital, said Pushparaj.

Pushparaj stands outside the building where the idols were found (left) and next to the mortuary where he presently works by cutting the bodies (right).

Given the nature of his work in the post mortem department, Pushparaj performs the pooja in the temple early in the morning while his wife Mahadevi performs the evening pooja. Mahadevi said that after them, their son Babu will continue the family tradition of running the temple.
Sister Selvi, a nurse at the hospital, said she offers a prayer every morning for the welfare of the patients under her care. Her sentiment was echoed by fellow-nurses Prabha and Shanta.
Two regulars at the temple for more than 25 years are city residents Kitty and Prakash. Pushparaj said that every Friday, however busy they are, they come and pay their respects to the deities housed in the shrine.

A doctor, who did not want his name mentioned, said that for more than 30 years, ever since his college day, has been a regular at the temple and all his prayers have been answered. A unique aspect of the temple is that visitors to the hospital attach a lock to the gates of the temple, asking for the quick recovery of their relatives. Sudha, whose daughter was admitted to Bowring for her delivery, offered a lock and said her prayers for a normal delivery were answered.
Latha, the mother of an accident victim who was brought to Bowring in bad shape a month ago, also offered a lock to the temple. She said that within two days, her prayers were answered and her young son is now recovering well, much to the surprise of the doctors.

Whether it works miracles or not, what is in-disputable is that this little shrine has been a source of solace down the years for thousands of visitors while their near and dear ones recover in the wards of the hospital.