Ganesha’s goodbye: Celebrated astrologer Bejan Daruwalla dies

Bejan Daruwalla passed away in an Ahmedabad hospital last evening. He was 90. But, bucking the predictable, India’s much-loved astrologer refused to bow out to Covid19 despite co-morbidities like pneumonia, diabetes, stroke-compromised organs. We have no way of knowing it, strapped as he was to the cat’s cradle of tubes, but one can safely assume that his last words would have been, ‘’I must go because ‘Ganesha Says’ so. That was the title of his column of decades in the Times of India which acknowledged his lifelong devotion to the secular deity. Bejan Daruwalla was a Parsi (with that name, what else?) and a practising Zoroastrian, but Ganesha was his go-to god professionally, and in times of personal crises.


When asked about his ‘astro’ technique, he said: "First of all, if you are physically present, I look deeply and get connecting vibes. You’d be surprised but the time you have approached me and the kind of day it is are as relevant as the lines on your palm, which are my fourth indicator. Next I would refer to your Indian horoscope and then the one on the western system. I feed all this into my computer – not the one on my desk, but up here,” he said, tapping his temple with his podgy, beringed finger. Finally, I look towards Ganesha. And that, my jaan, is how I make a prediction.”

Astrologers are either or both, masters of the human psyche or charlatans making equivocal pronouncements, proving the Barnum dictum of a ‘sucker born every minute’. But Daruwalla was a good human being, without a dissembling cell in his body, plus he had a higher ally. Perhaps that was why he got it so right, so often in his individually cast and one-size-fits-all media horoscopes, as well as in the big predictions. He foretold Indira Gandhi’s assassination, the

Bhopal

gas tragedy, the

Gujarat

earthquake and less clearly Sanjay Gandhi’s plane crash. His deep study of Vedic and

Western astrology

, palmistry, I Ching, Kabalah and Tarot all helped. But it’s never just academic acumen, their revelations unfold at a deeper level, The seer must first be the seeker.

Personally: Bejan always had the ‘high’ of his surname. If you were one of his favourites – and he had several across a spectrum, you were truly blessed. He’d bellow a greeting of undiluted pleasure: ‘My jaan, my Virgo’. He crafted poems for you with stuff about your star-sign-ordained qualities, and he never failed to wish you on your birthday. Being wheelchair bound for almost a decade never cramped his boundless energy. He looked like a ball of fun, and had as much bounce.

In his penultimate years he had an unlikely address, a Mumbai hotel at

Apollo

Bunder at the opposite, seamier side of the Gateway of India, haunt of that incongruous assembly of white-robed Arabs and budget tourists in self-consciously desi tie-dye and Kolhapuri chappals. His companion managed the long line of his supplicants, trying to balance their needs and his own enthusiasm to respond with his steadily deteriorating physical body. In his last years, he went back to his native Ahmedabad, but would return with his much-awaited book of annual predictions. And you’d get his once-booming, then increasingly faltering voice on your phone, inviting you to its launch.

Ganesha, the remover of obstacles must surely have ensured a safe passage to Bejan Daruwalla’s other lifelong associates, the stars.

Stay updated with the latest news on Times of India. Don't miss daily games like Crossword, Sudoku, and Mini Crossword.