Three predictions.

It was about 10 in the morning of October 31, 1984. A close friend of mine, TM Thomas Thekkekara, who stayed close by to my house in Panampally Nagar, Cochin, phoned to say that Indira Gandhi, the Prime Minister of India, was assassinated by one of her guards. Within minutes he was at my place and we went over to the Lotus Club.

The Western Court of the club was full of people when we reached. On seeing me, a member named Krishnan shouted out, “Tharakan, all of us were waiting for you.”

“Krishnan tells us,” another member said, “that last year you predicted Indira Gandhi’s assassination.”

That of course was not correct. But I recalled meeting the famous astrologer, Mitran Nampoothiri at the Poonjar Palace, Kerala, a year earlier. I had gone there with a friend, KV. Thomas Kochukudy. As we were sitting on the palace grounds in the evening and chatting, Mitran Thirumeni had said, “Indira Gandhi would be finished on October 31st next year.“

“You mean,” I asked, “that she will loose an election?”

“No, she will be murdered.”

Thirumeni went on to make two more predictions. Perhaps noticing the skepticism on my face, he added, “Tharakan, note down in your diary that Mitran said these.”

I did ask him how he could make such forecasts. He explained that it came from a combination of prayers, concentration and precise calculations based on planetary positions.

I didn’t take him seriously. I had no faith in astrology or fortune telling. But the next day there was some discussion about astrology at the club. Rather irreverently I mentioned about Mitran’s predictions and promptly forgot about them. Some people, however, had remembered at least the Indira Gandhi part.

“Mitran Nampoothiri,” I answered the member’s question, “predicted that last year. He had made two more prophecies as well.”

Now the people were astounded. They wanted to know about the other two predictions. I couldn’t remember them.

But I did recall one of them several years later. I was at Chennai, en route to Delhi. The date was September 11, 2001. As the news about the attack on the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York poured over the TV, Mitran’s second prediction suddenly came to my mind. He had said that there would be a major explosion in New York with far reaching consequences. I was not sure whether he had mentioned any date.

What about the next forecast? May be I’ll recall Thirumeni’s third prediction if and when that event happens!

Ends.

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