natural speed please!
Astrologer Vinod Shastri practices next to the ancient observatory here, where the astronomers of the maharaja once monitored the heavens. Normally, customers coming to Shastri’s tiny office — a fading sign over the door reads “Astrological Council & Research Institute” — give a handful of rupees in exchange for his help predicting auspicious times for marriage, charting a career path or healing a broken heart. But in the past six months, a rhetorically pugilistic, orange-haired politician from another continent has loomed large in their catalogue of worries.It began with a dark-suited hotelier from Mumbai who jetted in for a day with one question: Would Donald Trump win the presidency? Shastri now fields up to five calls a day from clients wanting to know what the stars and planets have to say about the world’s uncertain, post-fact future. Many are scared, he said. “When I told them that he will win, their response was that America will be destroyed and that he can do anything,” Shastri said. Now clients are wondering “how his relationships will affect Indian leaders, how he will do for India, his relationship with U.K. [and] the effect he will have on Indian-U.S. business relations.” Indians have long embraced astrology, the practice — or, as many would say, pseudo-science — of divining the future by the movement of the celestial bodies. Families pairing up their daughters and sons for marriage consult star charts before the deal is sealed, and businesses hold launch dates on auspicious days and times. Indian politicians are particularly superstitious, known to consult their pet astrologers on cabinet shake-ups and big speeches. Vaibhav Magon, 25, the founder of Askmonk, an astrology application for mobile phones, says his business has seen a “huge spike” in Trump-related queries to its in-house astrologers in recent weeks — mostly from investors and would-be immigrants worried about visas. “People are uncertain about the future, and they’re looking for astrologers to guide them or come up with a solution,” he said. It is not surprising that his Indian clientele would turn to astrology during tumultuous times, he said. “Astrology is inherent within us, whether it’s taking a decision to get married or starting up a business.”Agarwal has been working in the United States on a temporary H-1B visa, a program for highly skilled foreign workers that the White House has targeted for reform, and was worried that the program might be modified or changed. “People in my age group want to know if they’re in a position to rise in their careers and what the future looks like. That’s what I want to know,” Agarwal said. “Is he going to do something that’s going to put my future in the line of fire? If so, I’d rather stay back [in India] and build something here.”The astrologers all agreed that prospects for the international community in the United States do not look good and warned him to watch Trump’s new policies carefully. Nevertheless, Agarwal says, he decided to go back to Chicago — for now.
