“Then how I know your mothers name?”
This was the third time I’d been accosted by the fat Indian guy on Khao San road, a palmist and fortune teller, the self-proclaimed great keeper of secrets and producer of mother’s names. Each time I passed him he would shout out after me “hey man”, I would do my best to keep walking, increasing my pace, and pretending that I hadn’t heard him, “hey man! One minute!” he would call out after me, following me now, and increasing his pace to match mine. “Hey man!” He would beckon loudly, growing louder and more aggressive with each chant, close on my heels.
My attempts to elude him had failed and finally I was forced to turn and confront him. “You very lucky man my friend!” the Indian informed me starting into his practised spiel, “You want to know why?” he questioned. “No, sorry” I replied, more then a little agitated “I’m not really a believer in all of that, or rather I kind of am, but just don’t buy that your gifted and able in that way, sorry”.
Khao San Road - Bangkok
“Then how I know your mothers name….”
My mothers name? This was the third time the fat Indian palmist had swooped on me as I’d tried to walk past, and it was the third time he’d claimed for some reason to know my mothers name. Twice before I’d turned my back, feeling that I’d heard him out, wasn’t interested in his offerings, and felt that it was now acceptable to part company.
This time however I felt the need to challenge the palmist, “ok, ok… so tell me, what is my mothers name?” “Let me tell you your heart” he continued ignoring my request, “Let me help you”.
“And my mothers name would be?”
“I know your troubles, I can help fix you”. The palmist said reaching for my hand.
I drew my hand away from the Indian and felt it tighten into a fist.
“Let me help you!” he repeated softly.
“Tell me my mother’s name!” I shouted into his face. “I’ll give you a thousand baht, right here, right now, if you can tell me my mother’s name”.
“Elizabeth”.
And with that the fat Indian palmist turned and began to walk away. My jaw dropped and my eyes glazed, stunned because the palmist was correct. “How?” I shouted after him, “You have the snake in your eyes” he said as if in reply.
“Your money?” I called after the now disappearing palmist, reaching into my wallet,
“I never asked you for money”.
“Then fix me” I pleaded with him, this man obviously knew all that I knew about myself, but in ways that I’d never know.
“I’m sorry” he called back, “but you don’t believe”.
I too am a sceptic but know there are things in heaven and earth we just do not understand. I believe your story to be true. Enjoyed it. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteHey Peter, yep, this world certainly is a fantastical place, I wouldn't pretend to understand as much as half of it. As for my story, well it's at least 99% truth. :D
ReplyDeleteGlad you enjoyed it and my thanks for stopping by.
Fabulous. This should be published in a short story collection or something. Regardless of it's percentage of truth :), it's a valuable and nicely written little gem.
ReplyDeleteAwwww thanks a lot RooBee, what a lovely compliment, I appreciate it.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed writing it, and I'm glad you both enjoyed reading it, so all is good. :D
One in seventy-five people has a mother named Elizabeth. (Depending on ethnic origin, of course, but this is a factor he can control for.
ReplyDeleteAssuming it takes him thirty seconds to go through his sales pitch, operating at full capacity he can miraculously guess the names of a dozen mothers in an eight-hour work day.
If each person he guesses right with is impressed enough to give him thirty bucks, he makes $360 a day. In practice he probably has substantial wait time between marks, but even so his throughput should be sufficient that he can afford to turn down the money just to fuck with your head if you're aggressive. If anyone sees it happen, or you go away and tell people about it, it adds to his mystique and forms the basis of an effective advertising strategy.
His talent lies not in being right, but in being wrong, over and over again, until the averages come out in his favour.
My mother's name is not a common name, neither is my ex boyfriends. And I haven't spoken about my ex boyfriend since we broke up, hadn't even said his name so I really am intrigued! Would love to know how he does it!!
Deletelol, I enjoyed reading your comment RapeWaffle, and I'm sure that it holds true in many situations. However the above was just a short story, there really was a palmist on Khao San Road, but this is just fiction.
ReplyDeleteWell guys, we live in HCMC and were accosted today by this palm reader. He came over to my fiance and said I know your mothers name same speel - i came over hungover thinking sh#t here we go another scam. He lead us down an alley and started talking with my fiance. Another indian guy came and started talking to me, "i know your mothers name, you have the snake in your eye" again I laughed but was hungover and wanted to be humoured by him so we walked round the corner as i didnt want him to hear what his friend was saying to my fiance. So i sat down on the curb and said "Go on whats my mums name?" He just smiled and said. "Shall i call you Ed or Edward???"!!!! "oh and its Ann without the E" my mums name. I just grinned and said how much do you want, he said nothing.
ReplyDeleteThen he said "Write down 5 things you want me to tell you and I will answer them for you right now on this paper.I wrote 1. My name 2. My D.O.B 3.My upcoming wedding date
Hey ED, I can't help but feel that there was more to that story, did your computer crash midway through typing it? =)
ReplyDeleteAnyways, it sounds like you met the same guy, interesting stuff, thanks for sharing. =)
4. My fiancés name 5. How many brothers and sisters I had and my brothers name
ReplyDeleteHe smiled and held my hand while touching my hand on his head, and 20 seconds later picked up the pen and wrote below my questions, I couldn’t see what he was writing and he folded the paper up and put it in my shirt pocket with the random first piece he had written on.
He then said that he wanted to tell me some things about my life if I didn’t mind. I told him he can say what he wanted as long as he didn’t piss me off and that I wouldn’t be talking he just had to talk and I would nod or shake my head.
He asked me if I believed in God and The Stars and I said no. He smiled and said, “Tomorrow you will think differently. He then out of the blue asked me if I was happy to have my first nephew and named the baby my brothers wife had a month ago. He told me how I was lucky to be a teacher and talked about things in the past in detail with names of people and dates they happened. I was just sitting there shaking my head in disbelief. He said he would be happy to see me when I came back to Thailand in February 2011 to get married (as most of you know we are getting married in Thailand on those dates!)
He asked me to name a number between 1 and 10 and write it down, I said 6 and he wrote 5 and 7 either side. He then said name 3 fruits and write them down. I wrote down Pear, Apple and Banana and he said circle 1 number, i circled 5, he then said and another and I circled 6, leaving 7. I then circled Banana and Pear and he said “Your number is 7 and your fruit is Apple” He then smiled and said, “I have a fee of 3000 bhat (£60) and I will talk for 10 more minutes but you can leave now but just give me whatever you want BUT you must give me back the paper in your pocket and cant look at them ( the ones with my 5 questions at the beginning and the number and fruit sheet which he put in my pocket WITHIN 30 seconds of meeting me and when I had probably said no more than 5 words to him!)
same guy same bs, apple and 7
ReplyDeletebeware the guys a scam artist asking for 10000 baht upwards and gets angry if you dont part with 5000k baht
he took 550 baht off me and got angry when i would not pay 5000 baht, ssme tricks, he is accurate about 10% the rest he makes up, nasty indian with a bad tongue, do not trust him, do not listen to him
This happened to me too last week in the same place.
ReplyDeleteI am so stunned with the experience that still thinking about it as I have finished holidays and back home searching the internet to see if any body else had this
experience.
I am still so stunned how he could tell me my mother name, my job and name of my first girlfriend.
I accept if you come from western world your mums name
can be Ann or Elizabet or jennifer or any thing else.
But my own mother name is very rare (very very very rare !) and is not western.
He did guessed it correct.
My first girl friend name was correct but she had a un-usual name.
The only way I explain this is either it is some mind reading, or hyptonisem or some hand trick.
Any way, believe it or not I am so stunned !
My best explaination is some sort of mind reading
same happened to me 10 years ago. couldn't wrap my head around it but, if I remember correctly, I think I did write down all those things and that is how he must have gotten it somehow...then again i can't be sure about it...
ReplyDeleteThank you all for your interesting comments, and your blog post, Chris. I've heard that the palmists and fortune tellers of Khao San road are still very much in business. Which in some ways is comforting, to know that some things never change.
ReplyDeleteBut of course, the above was just a short story, and the real Indian palmists of Khao San, would very much want to part you from your money. ;)
Went to one today. He wrote down my mother's name, my occupation, my 'love', how many brothers and sisters I have, and my year of birth on a piece of paper. Then he put that in my shirt pocket. Then he asked me the questions, and wrote down my answers while I still had the original paper in my hand. He got everything right. My mother's name is not a common name, and my love's name is not exactly a common name either. He guessed everything right, and discussed my emotions and things over the past year. Was rather spooked. He got everything right. :|
ReplyDeletei just had the same 10 minutes ago, and was thinking: whats the hell!!!!! i have to check if some people had the same story. he found everything, mothers name, boyfriends name, number brother sister, job etc. but now that i think about it again and again, i guess its a handtrick! for sure! this story of little paper that u had on the hand and change, he doesnt show u sometimes what is written etc
ReplyDeleteno im sure its a hand trick, but a good one so its nice to see!!! expect this, its true that he is good in what he sees.
I'm a farang and work on khao san road, I see these guys everyday. It's just a trick were they switch the bits of paper in your hand. I can do the same trick and it's very easy. They will write "god" down on a piece of paper and place it in your hand. They will tell you that that is your mums name, your age how many brothers and sisters, and your ex girlfriends name, but really it just says "god". when you finally tell them all of those details they will write it down twice. they give you 1 piece and keep the other piece, then they will say "god is our witness do you believe in god blah blah blah". they will write down "god" on a piece of paper then switch it with the piece of paper with all the details on it and put it in your hand. Now you have the original piece of paper with "god" on it, and now the new piece of paper with all the details you told him.When I first got here I was tricked by one of the yogi's. I didnt pay any money because I figured out what he had done. Yes some of these guys are extremely smart and can read people better then a professional poker player but all they do is trick you. they dont have any special mind reading powers or black magic, they are just con men. dont be shocked or worried at all they are all just full of sh#t
ReplyDeleteJohnathon, you are my hero! My partner and I saw these guys separately in February this year and they told both of use we wouldn't be together and would marry other people. It has been playing on our minds and relationship ever since!!! Would you mind explaining it again in a little further detail? THANK YOU!!!!
DeleteJohnathon, I had the same 2 days ago. But at first, I have to say sorry for my bad English... I hope you'll understand my text ;-) OK, I'll try to write down:
DeleteMy son and me met the Indian guy and he offered me to tell me my future blahblah... same story like the others... we sat down and he took a piece of paper and wrote something short on it (he didn't need more than 3 seconds for this). He folded the paperpiece and placed it in my hand and I closed my hand. Then he asked me to spell my mothers name, my boyfriends name and my occupation... so I did and he wrote down on another piece of paper which he didn't fold and gave it my son to keep it. Then he asked me if I believe in God (I said Yes) and he wrote down the word GOD on another piece of paper, fold it and placed it as well in my hand - were still the first paper was (btw, in between there was another Indian man who came shortly by and had a small talk with my son). Then the man told me to open the first piece of paper which he placed in my hand - et voilà - there was exactly the same written like at the paper my son has in his hand. BUT: I didn't see him writing down my answers twice!! My answers were very long words... and I'm also sure that he didn't switch the papers. then he asked me spontaneously another question - I answered. He said "open the second piece of paper in your hand" - I did and I was very surprised, that the word GOD turned into my answer which I gave a couple of second ago. Damn, that's strange!!!
I didn't get over it the whole day... but now I have another theory. Maybe he did it with hypnoses?? Maybe he let me spell my answers, did hypnoses with me to have enough time to write my answers down twice and replace the paperpiece in my hand. Maybe the other guy did also hypnoses with my son? It will be very interesting if there's is always a second Indian guy if you are not alone, e.g. with a friend and talking to them.
Your explanation in this blog is very good, but it actually doesn't fit my experience...
After that, he told me my future... probably the same shit he tell to everyone... long life, no troubles, no hard sickness...
Would love to read more experienced from others.
Hope my english is good enough to unterstand the procedure he did with me.
Sarah
yogi men? their all con arstists
ReplyDeleteI was approached by one the other day while on Khao San Rd and he told me my mothers name, my ex boyfriends name, how old I am and how many siblings I have.. He took a lot of my money, very clever guy! but it is amazing how he knows so much... I have no idea how he could have guessed those names! I guess I'll find out if he's really psychic if I get married in 2017 :) haha!
ReplyDeleteI had the same experience with probably the same indian chap on koh san road... or one of his pals.
ReplyDeleteAnyway Similar to what Ed said about the paper but instead he wrote my partners full name, my mothers name, how many siblings I had and my job title. within the first 30 seconds of meeting him, and I wasn't allowed to look at what he had written and he gave me the paper to hold onto.
Then he asked me for the answers, leading onto me opening up the piece of paper to see he already knew.
Sceptical or not, this bloke seemed to know a hell of a lot about me, within the first 30 seconds of meeting him. That was back in 2012 ... me being curious I wanted to hear what he had to say about my future.... and with things that I couldn't of made happen in specific places at the predicted times..... they have happened.
So i'd say go for it!!!
read almost all comments here...me and my husband met the two indian yogis and we sat separately and they gave us our fortune...
ReplyDeletehad to pay the guy because he started saying that bad karma will happen to me and he gave me a mean stare...he told me that i had a funny face and things that no one knows about me....he told me i would have twin boys...so ill wait for that haha
my husband too had his fortune read by the other yogi and up to now were both thinking whether it was some sort of a magic trick with the paper or what haha crazy experience