Naked I Came

  Fate

  Was Justin destined to get where he had reached in life? Justin was addicted to reading newspaper from his teen years. He would go through the headlines at a glance, then run through the comics and daily horoscope section before getting back to reading the news in detail.

  At the start of the year, he would go to the central market in Delhi and buy a compact yearly horoscope paperback guide for himself. Oh! How sometimes the contents in the guide that made exciting future predictions would elate him and at other times, he would become sober, after going through the contents that predicted gloom and doom. In comparison, he noticed that his sun sign Sagittarius was better than the other sun signs, and would often predict heaven on earth in form of good love life, unexpected windfall of money, opportunity to travel abroad and all the goodies that make a person happy. Near the Old Delhi Railway Station in the city of Delhi, there was a public library, which Justin visited occasionally and right in front of it, a horde of palm readers and tarot card readers used to set up their shop on the walkway. Modus operandi of each being unique. A few would have an array of tarot cards neatly laid out in front of a cage with a parrot inside it. While passing through that place, Justin always found such tarot card readers, surrounded by people seeking to have a glimpse into their future. On making a payment, the fortuneteller running the show would get the parrot out of the cage and lead it to the neatly stacked cards. The parrot would then pull out a card with its beak and go back into the cage. The fortuneteller would read the contents of the card to the person, giving him an insight into the ‘supposed’ future happenings of their life. Justin, who was young and impressionable at that age, always watched this street show with fascination but never ventured to inquire about his own future from a mystic. However, Justin religiously went through all the horoscope references found in the newspapers, magazines, and the likes, and never missed any such material that he could lay his hands on. Horoscopes, sometimes became the main topic of discussion in many circles that he moved in, be it the bank circle, the social circle, or any other gathering.

  After the initial months of starting the church work in Delhi, Brother Eric introduced another co-preacher known as Pastor Bose. The main attribute of this man was that he had a very shrill voice, compared with that of Brother Eric who had a rather deep voice. Judging from the personality of Pastor Bose, all were very skeptical about any positive impact that he could have on them. However, to the surprise of the congregants, Pastor Bose, instead of continuing in the footsteps of Brother Eric and preach subjects of grace, took a different approach and boldly started preaching and teaching on the subject of sin and God’s plan of salvation. As a result of the teaching by Pastor Bose, it soon dawned upon Justin that referring to future things, asking from tarot readers, fortunetellers, etc., was blasphemous and, thus, a sin. He had been regularly attending the Main Line church since his childhood but had never come across such facts. Now, since Justin knew what was right, he shunned to have such prognostic views about one’s fate.