Afrequent visitor to The Statesman office during the 1990s was Lachhman Das Madan , an astrologer par excellence, hailed as “Jyotish Samrat”. His day was spent at his industrial unit in the Mayapuri Industrial Area, where he combined business philanthropy and astrology. People came to him with problems and he solved them with the help of his deep insight into astrology. But he could be very pragmatic too and once turned away a potential customer as his horoscope showed that he had either committed a murder or was likely to do so. This incident was almost like the one in R K Narayan’s famous story, An Astrologer’s Day.

Always nattily dressed in suit and tie, a man of imposing height and build, Madan came to Delhi from Dera Ismail Khan (now in Pakistan Punjab) in 1942 to serve as a government official. Later he turned to astrology and business. His Babaji magazine was much sought after as it contained predictions for the whole year. As far as predictions go, he had predicted the 1965 and 1971 Indo-Pak wars and the one with China in 1962. Among his VIP clients was B D Jatti, a former Vice-President (whose name was once linked with Indira Gandhi). Madan told him that do what he might he would never become President of India ~ and this turned out to be true.

A deeply religious man, Lachhman Das Madan died on 26 July in Ambika Vihar at the age of 95 and was cremated the next day but he seems to have had a premonition that his time was up and had stopped publishing Babaji, which always started with an exhortation to “Shukurvar priya Santoshi Mata”. He is survived by three sons and three daughters. His wife expired in 2011 and also one of his sons, Prem Shankar predeceased him after the family left Rajouri Garden and settled down in a colony next to Paschim Vihar, where Madan Sahib’s daily rendezvous was the Sanatan Dharam Mandir.

Wrong number?

Misinterpretation of anything can land one in trouble, a colleague remarked, recalling how a gentleman had a narrow escape from jail because of this. Visiting the ESIC hospital at Rohini, the colleague spotted this gentleman looking a bit lost. Perhaps it was his first visit, he appeared to have no idea about the hospital. Once he was done with the doctor’s examination, he looked around to know where he could procure the medicine prescribed by the doctor. He approached a lady guard on duty, who told him, “100 number”. The guard meant Room No 100, but the innocent gentleman thought he had to call 100 to get the medicine. And so, he quickly dialled the number, little realising it would connect him to Police. Certainly, the call asking for medicine would have vexed the police personnel on duty, who would have thought it was a prank call. But luckily for him he called up in the presence of the lady guard. The moment she heard him, the lady snatched the phone and somehow explained the mix-up to the police. Not stopping at this, she fearfully ran to the doctor on duty. Fortunately, the police personnel took the incident in good humour and the embarrassed gentleman was led away to Room No 100.

On the job

A news organisation reporter’s job is undoubtedly filled with many “thrills”, where one deals with uncertainities all the time. No one can actually guess what a journalist would be doing at any moment. All this adds to the excitement in a reporter’s life but sometimes this can lead to unwelcome trouble as well. Recounting one such situation, a colleague said his friend, also a journalist, had dropped a Whatsapp message on his phone, which read, “Zindagi rahi to phir milenge (If alive will meet again)”. Taken aback by this message, our colleague replied asking her if she was dealing with any problem. But despite several messages and calls, she didn’t reply. Imagining possible situations the friend might be in, our colleague decided to alert the police about her. The recent news of a politician’s son stalking a girl made him more tense. However, before he could call the police, his friend messaged him, informing that she was doing a crime-based news story and had gone to a scene along with the police team. Heavily relieved, our colleague berrated his friend, stating that news stories were meant to make one aware but could end up scaring us too.

Tailpiece

Overheard an octogenarian: Today’s politics is more like a business deal; no longer is it ideologies or a sense of serving people.

* * *

Contributed by: Vrinda Baheti, R V Smith, Rakesh Kumar, Kunal Roy and Asha Ramachand