The Palmist of Khao San Road
68
Unbeliever
“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”.
“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”.
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The Indian Palmist of Khao San Road - Comments:
Hey 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
Glad 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.
Awwww thanks a lot RooBee, what a lovely compliment, I appreciate it.
Maybe I should write less hubs about sugared almonds and Star Wars figures and more about things that matter, lol. although I shouldn't imagine this will get a whole lot of traffic, but hey, I 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.
Assuming 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.
lol, 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.
Well 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.
Then 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? =)
Anyways, 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
He 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!)
Peter Dickinson says:
6 months ago
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.