Discovery Or Invention? Take your pick!

I got a call from a model friend Manav a couple of days ago. “Yaar, Sunita Menon is great! When I went to meet her she kept saying that I should be careful as I might have an accident and she was right! I had a serious accident last night and I’m lucky to be alive!” he gushed to me. Sunita, incidentally, is a very popular tarot card reader and a psychic in the city and I meet at least three people everyday who want her number from me. She also happens to be a good friend though I have very mixed feelings about her profession. However my family is quite into it. My father is an accomplished astrologer and my brother has a keen interest in the subject and has inherited a flair for it. But I have always kept away from all of this. I’m not at ease about dabbling in these areas of life. While astrology seems a little more palatable than the rest owing to its scientific approach, Tarot card reading and clairvoyance make me uncomfortable. I’m of the firm belief that future is something that a human is not meant to know, but with these powers, he trespasses the boundaries set by nature just to fulfill his own curiosity. It’s like what Pooja says about deep sea diving: “Whenever I have gone down there I have felt like I’m intruding a private space… It’s not a place where we are meant to go!” On the other hand, however, I come across people who have been helped immensely by these powers and at such times it feels like the right thing. Anyway I have stuck to my guns and managed to keep away from consulting any tarot card reader or astrologer till date. I choose to believe if we were meant to know, nature would have provided us with our own means. But once again I have lost the point… So I meet at least three people everyday that want me to fix an appointment with Sunita Menon. And what is astonishing is that out of the three at least two are below the age of 30. It makes me wonder about the world we live in… I remember when I was younger I never thought anyone could tell me what I should be doing. I didn’t want to know… Youth is all about confidence, independence and rebellion… I was sure I could conquer the world and nothing contradictory had a place in my life! Yes, there was self-doubt and anxiety about the uncertainty of future but the thought of guiding your life on the basis of a few random cards was completely unheard of! The whole point of the journey called life is to have a vague map and seek your goals -- destination to destination… mistake to mistake… Having a psychic to guide you is like having the GPRS system… It takes the whole fun away from the journey… Not that I’m against these powers. As one grows older and weathers certain storms in life, I understand that one needs a support system for rejuvenation and clarity. But for a person below 30 (who’s at the threshold of life), to get hooked on to soothsayers for advise on everything from love life to family problems to career decisions seems absurd! If everything is to be readymade, what is he or she going to discover through life? But then again who wants to waste time discovering today? Everyone wants to invent even before discovering… Shortcuts are the order of the day… And I can’t help but quote my ex-editor who always said, `Shortcuts are always short lived!”