Parrot
Astrologer

Fortune-telling is traditionally known to be in the form of palmistry, numerology, astrology and parrot-astrology. What connection can there be between human destiny and astrology? Mr. T M Raghavan, 63, born in Kerala, India, is a practitioner in parrot-astrology. He explains and links human events to his ancient craft of parrot-astrology which is based on 27 lucky fortune cards (based on Indian astrological system) picked by a parakeet for S$1 each time.

"I have always been interested in reading people's fortune. I used to observe astrologers when I was young in India. This was how I developed my interest and experience. At first, I was casual, never took parrot-astrology seriously or thought of becoming a parrot-astrologer myself one day. But I came to being one by accident. I was out of job and a good friend advised me to go into parrot-astrology since I had some knowledge about it. So I decided to go for it. I got my parrots from my friend. Since then, I have been a parrot-astrologer and have no regrets," Mr. T M Raghavan said happily.

He has 2 very beautiful and charming parrots named "Mani" and "Letchimi". They are trained to forecast anyone's fortune and destiny. They have the intelligence to select the right fortune cards for T M Raghavan's customers. He believes that they are the goddess's gift and thus he decided to give them God's name. The fortune cards have pictures of deities and lucky messages. Customers consult T M Raghavan on matters concerning marriage, money, business and work. Some of them also come to him on occasions like festivals and birthdays.

T M Raghavan voiced his frank view son the ups and downs of his trade,

"The earnings are very small and miserable in parrot-astrology. At the end of a long day, i.e. 12 hours, my income is about S$10 to S$15. I normally charge S$1 for a reading. I am surviving as my overhead is low; a small table, or even the pavement sometimes, parrots, some charts and a notebook. My income is better during special occasions like trade fairs and exhibitions."

Mr. T M Raghavan is one of the Indian pioneers who has come here and witnessed the changing facets of Singapore. Parrot-astrology is becoming a vanishing trade... ...