Views of a Nepali Economist

"Kabul--A City At Work" is a website devoted to highlighting the people who are working to remake the Afghan city. Click here to read about Sayed Jalaladin, a fortune teller.

An excerpt:

I have been telling peoples fortunes for 15 years. Before that I worked with my father who told fortunes. I was his assistant.[...]

The procedure I follow is Raml. There are two sticks of 4 dice, which I roll and then ask the customer their name and their mother’s name. They have to point to a sign at random and then I make the assessment. It is a huge wisdom. Those 6 sides of dice know the secrets of the world. Through them, I know everything about everything and all the treasures of the world...[...]

I have between 2-10 customers a day and they are mostly men. They come to ask me about disputes with their neighbours or differences between tribes, which I am good at resolving. Women ask me about their children.

Under the Taliban such practices were banned however and we moved to Quetta. I was telling fortunes there but not making enough money so my sons had to sell snuff on the streets. I can’t say those days were happy, but we survived. No, those days were the worst. We were so happy to be returning to Kabul when they fell but it was like returning to a ghost town. There was so much destruction everywhere.

I don’t think the Taliban could ever come back. I mean the foreign soldiers are here now so they can’t. All they can do is blow themselves up. Let them.

Labels: Afghanistan, fortune teller, Kabul, Taliban