Astrological Predictions in India for May 8,1999

[Aditya Mishra]

The Times of India News Service

NEW DELHI: Even as more scientists debunked the May 8 doomsday theory,
there appeared to be no end to the panic that has gripped people.

The Nehru Planetarium here says nothing at all will happen on Saturday,
or
on any other day in the near future. ``It's all utter nonsense,'' says
Mahendra Singh of the planetarium. ``There's going to be no change in
the
planets' position on May 8 - it's the usual thing, no different from
today... Venus on the western horizon, Mars on the eastern, Jupiter and
Saturn on the other side of the Sun... They aren't even coming into a
line.''

In Bangalore, Ms Vinod Krishnan, professor at the Indian Institute of
Astrophysics, says that each planet has a definite orbit and period of
rotation. Only when the planets come close to each other with minimum
angular separation can they be seen simultaneously from one position on
the earth. This is called alignment. But this grouping is purely
dynamical
and not based on mutual interaction. And it has absolutely no bearing on
human life. She says mathematical calculations show that such an
alignment
will occur on May 5, 2000.

Be that as it may, parts of Gujarat are witnessing an exodus of people
like never before. It all began following the publication of an article
in
a Delhi based astrological magazine Mahalakshmi Samrat. The article had
said that a coastal town will be decimated after a catastrophe. That was
enough to send residents of the ship breaking yard at Alang to flee.

Says Alang Ship Breakers Association president Budhabhai Patel, ``These
people are so illiterate, they cannot differentiate between a rumor and
a
sane advice. Over 18,000 people have fled because someone distributed
pamphlets announcing the doomsday.''

Though the magazine was not specific, the pamphlets were specific that
Alang would be the scene of the "pralay" (catastrophe). A similar rumor
of
Kandla port being hit by a volcano also generated fear in the
Kandla-Gandhidham area where over 2,000 people died in a cyclone last
year. Bhavnagar resident collector G.M. Thakkar said all efforts to
convince people that these were rumors have failed.

A report from Patna says that the doomsday panic has gripped
semi-literate
and illiterate people in the city and its adjacent villages. Everybody
is
talking about the end of the world. In Ishopur village, Gopal, a farm
laborer, along with his son, is spending agonizing moments and sleepless
nights keeping a close vigil. Says rationalist Lankesh Chakravarty,
``This
is not blind faith or superstition but mass madness.''

Some astrologers have, however, refuted the rumors. D.D. Guru, an
economist and keen astrologer, says, ``There is no chance of any
trajectory or eight planets falling in one line. This phenomenon did
occur
in 1962 when eight planets joined one house and India witnessed the war
with China but no apocalypse occurred.''

The doomsday rumors have also had some effect in the quake hit Uttar
Pradesh hills and Himachal Pradesh. But the people in the Uttar Pradesh
hills are more worried about getting rehabilitation, already reeling
from
a major earthquake and now forest fires.

`` Rumors are making the rounds here that May 8 will be doomsday, but
intelligent people know that it is all a rumor. The villagers may be
gullible, but overall this has had little effect on the quake victims,''
Chakradhar Tiwari of the Dasholi Gramsabha, an NGO run by
environmentalist
Chand Prasad Bhatt, told The Times of India over phone.

In Himachal, the doomsday fear has not taken on paranoid proportions but
it is the common topic of discussion. Even an astrologer, Shastri Tej
Prakash Semwal, who lives in Paonta Sahib, has ruled out any catastrophe
on Saturday.
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Have a peaceful and joyous day.
©1998   Aditya Mishra
        homepage: http://www.smart1.net/aditya
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Random thought of the day:
        People often find it easier to be a result of the past than a cause of
the
future.