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Posted on: May 2nd, 2010
Want a job, bank loan, a visa? Go to the neighbourhood baba ‘famous’ for solving your particular New Age problem. Urban Indians are increasingly turning to spiritual service providers who seem to take care of everything, except the soul
The baba rolls his bloodshot eyes, his head swinging like a pendulum, murmuring a mantra under his breath. He snatches an amulet and a red thread out of thin air, dropping them into the lap of the woman sitting in front of him. She lowers her eyes and bows, her head touching the baba’s feet. “Put this under your husband’s pillow for a week,” says the baba, a middle-aged man with a flowing grey beard. “Come back to me after seven days,” he whispers in her ear. Shikha Rai, 35, bows, quietly leaving the dimly-lit room, her eyes fixed on Baba Farid ji. It is her second visit to the baba she believes will bring her husband back to her. He has taken a lover in another city. “I am confident the baba’s magic will work,” she says as she drives away in her SUV.
Rai, who lives in a tony neighbourhood in Delhi, heard about the baba from a friend who was delighted with his services. Her son had a job in the US but could not get a visa. The baba arranged the visa in no time at all by performing a ritual. “She paid him only after her son got the visa,” says Rai, vouching for the baba’s honesty.
The visa is just one of a new slew of problems urban Indians are increasingly bringing to tantriks and babas. Want a job, bank loan, foreign travel? Go to the baba best known for his area of expertise. The number of babas operating in south Delhi localities has swelled in the last few years and so has the number of people making a beeline to them seeking answers to problems such as “marriage, break in films, modelling assignment, failure in love.”
In Delhi’s Nev Sarai area, there is a temple called “Chamatkari visa wale Hanuman ka Mandir”. The baba at the temple claims he can get any one any visa with his special prayers. Ahmedabad boasts a similar temple. In Hyderabad, the Chilkur Balaji temple is popularly known as “Balaji Visa temple”. Thousands visit it every week before they head for the local US consulate.
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