My uncle was known for his famous short temper. He was owning a farm land in his village, and in those days, during the British rule in India, in 1930s or so, he was a young man,and was just then married. As per the customs and culture in those days, he was married when he was young; he was hardly 20 years old and his wife was only 16 years ! The farming work was done by workers and the only work left to my uncle was to inspect the field in the early morning, during his walk, come back home along with his elder brother and after an early lunch, settle down for a game of playing cards in the shaded portico of the house, where all other friends would join the play. It will continue for hours together, where betting used to pep up the interest in the game. Any external interference, other than regular refreshments supplied from inside the house, would be frowned upon.
There was a middle aged man in the village, who was declared to be affected mentally and who used to roam the streets, without any work,used to come to see my uncle also. There used to be a high level of sympathy and tolerance for these kind of people in those days and he would be given free food, sometime money also- though he would not know what to do with that ! On this fateful day, this guy visited the house when the play was in full swing and where my uncle was steadily losing !
He was watching this for some time and abruptly asked my uncle, " What is your birth star "? My uncle was visibly annoyed over this uncalled for intrusion. He glared at him and asked sarcastically, " Why ? are you going to predict my future "?
The man replied in the affirmative. My uncle was really angry with him. he said " If you can predict my future with my star, you can predict my star also ". The man was unruffled and calmly told him that it was not a problem at all ! He went out to the street, looked up in the sky, in the broad-day light for a few minutes, and came back. He asked my uncle whether he was born under a particular star ! My uncle was taken aback! In fact, that was his birth star. He looked at him, unable to speak a word.
Thereupon, the man informed my uncle that his wife would die after giving birth to a male child, and the child would also die within a month. My uncle would marry for the second time but he would not be blessed with a child. His second wife also would die and he would marry for the third time; all this would be within a span of 7 years. After the third marriage, he would lead a comfortable life but would not be blessed with a child. At the fag end of his life, during his old age, his third wife would also die due to an accident ! Hearing this, my uncle became very agitated. Before he could get physical and beat him up, his friends stopped him. The game ended abruptly and my uncle was very depressed over this issue.
After an year, his wife delivered a male child. Within fifteen days, the child developed jaundice and died within a few days. Medical treatment was very primitive in those days and in a village, one can not expect a learned doctor. Very sadly, his wife also died within a month.
Within one year, he was married again and his second wife, true to the prediction, died within 6 months ! My uncle was really alarmed over these happenings ! All his relatives and friends consoled him and after a lapse of one year, he was married , the third time ! At this point of time, he was only 30 years old. Remarriage was a common feature those days, especially due to the culture of child marriage. While the men could marry second time, the same was not extended to the women ! They were to spend the rest of their lives, once their husbands died !
My uncle lived a comfortable life and I used to visit his house frequently, since he was lonely and had no one else to spend time with.
At the age of 78, when his wife was 68 years old, they went to a temple one day for worshipping. As they were walking, one of the trucks which was coming from the opposite direction, lost its control and came rushing towards them. My uncle jumped into a small pit nearby, by a reflex action. My aunt was stunned and stood there only ! The truck hit her directly and she collapsed in front of him and died ! We went for the funeral and tried to console my uncle. My uncle stayed with my elder brother till his end came, after 5 years. But then, the prediction had come true ! He used to feel sad most of the times in the memories of his younger days and we used to comfort him.
I recall this incident of prediction, by a mentally deranged person who had no back up information,though the prediction was totally true ! We have no scientific explanations for many things in our lives !
Author is a freelance writer and he writes in other blogs http://www.create-destiny.blogspot.com/
http://www.blogit.com/ under the name read4joy
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