.......Trring...trring...

“Yes”

“Sir!! ... Someone has taken the farm and is running away...”

It was Chinnathambi; the security man .He drinks. I knew something like this was going to happen.I told Beena yester day to fence the farm. So that no one can come and steal.See now what has happened. I do not know why she can’t listen to voice of anticipation.

'Who is going to steal the farm?”Her voice   started as a giggle and ended in a loud laughter. 
”let us call the Supreme Court and get injunction”

“What are you dreaming about...?”  Beena’s voice.

Get up, coffee is ready...” I was shaken up from reverie

 Better not tell Beena about this dream. It will become a permanent joke

“Raju can you do me a favour? Just ring up this number and check whether this person can come today to do water divining. ? I want him to locate two spots in the farm where we can ask the drilling rig man to dig a bore well.  

 We sampath’s have our pride and dignity to safeguard... If I have to do the unskilled work then I shall do the skilled part also. I went through the yellow pages and  struck gold (or water). Under the heading of water diviner there was a figure of "Om" and followed by Varuna mantra. My intuition told me clearly that this is the person we should go to.

 I called the home of Sri Sri Swamy Natha Varuna Krupa Sagara after an hour (see the coincidence in name “Varuna “the god of rain, refer to my blog on 'nothing happens by chance.'  ) I have a great respect for these genuine Swamy jhis.

“Radheshayam;   Radheshayam”

“Good Morning Mr Radheshyam”, May be this was Swamy’s assistant.

“No!! Radheshyam! That is ......God... I am Swamy jhi........ Like you say hello... I say Radhey Shyam”

Oops!  Now I remembered my uncle who, after taking sanyas always addressed his disciples on phone as “Hari Om”. In my mind the respect for Swamy jhi grew. Very creative; innovative; I thought. Does not stick to the standard clichés.

Let me give him the respect he deserves

“Radheyshyam   ; Radheyshyam” I chipped in

“What!! .... Are you Radhey Shyam?”

It dawned on me that only realised and qualified souls like him have the right to say “Radhey shyam” and maybe I have committed a crime by saying this. So quickly I came to the subject.

“Swamy jhi I am Sampath. I want to locate a spot for digging bore well for water”

“You send by e-mail the sketch of the form. I will keep it in my puja and give you the spots.”

Beena will never accept this. I will have to somehow make him come to the farm

“Swami Jhi I will bring it to you personally”

It was a grey building and in the front was a big board”Swamy Sri Sri Swamynatha Varuna Krupa Sagara--- astrologer, jyotishi, water and oil diviner”.

I waited for him in the outer room.

Swami Jhi entered with his assistant trailing him . He had big Rudrakhsha mala and was draped in silk. His body was smeared with vibhuthi with a big Chandan Tilak on his head.The Kumkum dot was prominent and a golden ear ring was adorning the ear lobes. ....; it was a divine sight; I felt like prostrating before him but held myself back so that I don’t embarrass him. I did a virtual Shastanga Namaskar  

“Swamy this is the plan of the site.”

Swamy’s assistant leaned over to me and pointed to the god Dakshina Murthy photo hanging in the wall and asked me to just do a Namaskar. Underneath was a board saying "Bank on me.. I will save”... As I was doing the Namaskar something hit me ... an intuitive thought ...I realised the blasphemy I was committing. I reached quickly for my wallet and took out 500 rs and offered the asst.

“Please accept my humble dakshina...” we sampaths think like leptons (recently I read   leptons are sub atomic particles that travel faster than light.). One big gift I have, which I seldom reveal even to my best friends is my ability to make out symbolic patterns. By this time the intelligent Sulekha reader would have divined the connection between Dakshina murthy and giving dakhshina.

Meanwhile Swamy jhi closed his eyes and went into some deep trance

“You will get water in these three spots”. He pointed with his pencil. He went back to his meditation....

The assistant was whispering that Swami now did field visits only for oil exploration. He does only spot indication in the office. My respect for him grew. I would have been satisfied just with this consultancy (being a consultant I know the value of personal time) but I know that Beena was expecting me to bring some body to the farm. I can’t disappoint her.

So I nudged the assistant and whispered back to him

“I want Swamy jhi to come and bless this farm. He should personally come and select the spots.”

He said that Swami jhi was very attached to his devotees. . One of them had a charitable trust...he paused.... I immediately understood (Am I not one of the best in reading subtle cues?)  I took out my cheque book and with a flourish made out a cheque for 2000Rs asking him to fill in the name of the trust. After all it was for a good cause (I ensured that it was a charitable trust under Income tax act so that I get my tax exemption of 30 percent...) these nuances Beena would never have known. such are the visible advantages of having me around...

Swami Jhi was very friendly as we were driving in the taxi. I felt  fortunate that a person who is close to Dhirubhai, Amiatabh Bachan and Chairman of ONGC (oil and natural gas commission) , has agreed to personally come with me, for this small job. I thought I could utilise the time for some useful discussions and asked him whether there is any chance of oil being found in my site. He said When Dhirubhai asked him this question he (Dhirubhai) had given a grant of two million rupees to the trust before he had the courage to ask the question. I realised that I had committed a grave sin ;( mentally I caught my ears and saying "Thobha" "Thobha" and did two Thoppukaranams*) but the compassionate swami said that he would still answer the question. After going into a meditative trance, He said if I go down 16,750 feet I would hit upon a small fortune of oil. I realised that I was sitting on a liquid gold mine. But I needed a small solid gold mine to leverage it..  

Swamy jhi asked for a Y shaped twig .He kept the twig with the two limbs of"Y" resting on two palms and he started walking. At one place he stopped and said

 “Look at the twig”.

The twig was doing a salsa. (Swamy said it was rotating by itself. Chinnthambi told Beena later, he saw Swamy jhi use hand motion for rotating. What blasphemy!   .I will have to warn her about him...)Apparently the dance of the twig whether it is Salsa, fox trot, jazz or bollywood (  intelligent readers would have by now recognised that I am speaking in metaphors when I am talking about salsa ...) revealed the nature of the water position down...

Swamy jhi started calculating

“80ft, 90ft, 100ft    ... he said this is the first spring...  Next is at 180 feet there are three springs: one flowing from north east, the other from south west and one from south. Suddenly he said

” Oh no”.

 I got scared

” Has the water stopped coming swami jhi?”

  “No the water is not very sweet,”

I told him not to worry; we like it not to have any taste. He said sweet meant potable. He asked me to get a rock and he kept it on the spot

” Congratulations now you will have water...   let us go”

 “Swamy jhi any alternate spot”.

 Initially he seemed upset, but looking at my sincerity he relented....  I was very happy now that two spots have been identified. The job is done and we will have water. (By this time a discerning reader must have understood that it is crucial to have water to run a farm). And Beena the farmer will be launched...I rang up Beena and conveyed the happy news

I was watching the scene. The Drilling rig was operating with a noise and suddenly a gush of black substance started coming out... Out of nowhere a sound of alarm bell was ringing. Must be from the drilling rig. I looked at the black fluid and cried

 “Oil!!......Oil!!”

....The alarm bell started ringing again... and the oil started gushing forth. My god! Beena has struck it rich... I was experiencing the sense of pride for locating the spots (of course with swamy jhi’s help)

 “Raju can you please pick up the phone. How long has it been ringing”

“Let us negotiate with Ambani...” 

"RAJUUUU!!"


 I woke up with a start...oh! Yes the telephone

“Hello”

“Sir! We have put the outer casing at 80 feet when we struck rock. After that for the water we have gone up to 200 feet...no sign of anything. What should I do?”

I told him “Go up to 16,750 ft”

“What! Did you say sir .....600 ft?”

I came to my senses... This was the bore well guy Beena had hired. We were there last night initiating the operation bore well with the drilling rig.  He and his team have been working throughout the night. I asked him for his suggestion; He said that we should abandon this and try the other spot...

But I could not believe it! How could Swamy jhi be wrong..?I told him to go ahead with the other spot. I was in a daze. After collecting my thoughts with the cup of coffee I called up swami jhi. And I told him...

 “Did you do a puja before drilling....?.

 I said Chiinnathambi; the caretaker would have done it. He asked me specifically  

"Was it done in Beena’s name?"

I said no.

“Then how can you expect water.....?”

Ooh!!  That was the issue... Then my mistake dawned on me. And I fully respect the rigour required in these issues...There is a protocol to be observed for everything...Varuna  responds to the correct process. I realised that the Swamy jhi must be a "six sigma"** black belt...

When I told this to Beena she was furious.  She said how can water which disappears when there is no puja ,makes it appearance if there had been a puja? .Very logical question indeed.... I would have also asked a similar question... (If I did not have the spiritual insight) 

  I rang up the bore well man and asked him to perform a puja in my wife’s name before starting in the new spot. I also arranged for the priest. Now there should be no problems.

The second phone call which came in after three hours was shattering.

“Sir there is no hard rock to be found here we cannot even put the casing  ... we cannot continue to drill here. Please suggest a different place.”

I was crushed... my belief, my faith, everything under question. I rang up swamy jhi 

“What was the time they started digging the bore?” asked swamy jhi

 “2.30 pm”

“Are you aware what that period is?”

I was a little confused as I found no sympathy or remorse in his voice. I did not understand what he was getting at...

“That is Marana yogam”... "Also Vastu Purisha*** is sleeping in that period"

Oh! My god!! Why did it not occur to me? I was already feeling better..my belief in the swamy jhi got restored.....now the logic fell into place...I cursed myself for not acquainting with the sleeping habits of Vastu Purusha...

“I will come tomorrow and select three more sites. Arrange for a Vastu Puja. You have to bear only the puja’s cost....”. So nice of him...

Some times Beena can be very unreasonable. She declared

“If I see him anywhere near my farm I will have nothing to do with the farm anymore” Here I was doing everything for her so that she can run the farm. Does she know the troubles I am taking...?

"Do whatever you want” I walked out in a huff.

 
At a distance we could see our farm and the silhouette of the drilling machine. The fencing she had put recently also slowly became visible.  

 “If don’t get water now I shall abandon this project.” Beena said as we were driving to the farm

  An untold feeling of deep sadness was engulfing me. Beena was always a positive and a never say die person. She was about to give up .I was chanting the powerful Gayatri mantra inside. God please let us strike water. Please...

After the Swamy jhi episode... (I am very clear if we had followed him to the dot we would definitely have hit water) we called in a Geological Survey man (do you see I have also strategically started using the word we. You cannot make out from the clever usage of words whether Beena was responsible   or I am responsible for locating this geo sonar source) who used the sonar wave bouncing method to identify spots where there is water. We had a water diviner from Talapalli (the villagers vouched for him and recommended him personally to Beena) who for a fee of 250 Rs identified three spots. Moreover he would take money after the water is struck. But for my negotiation skills she would probably have ended up paying him 500 Rs.

From these spots identified by the two people, we identified one spot where both methods were in agreement and the digging was on. With my usual modesty I should say that I played very vital part in the analysis leading to selection of spots. Of course the final choice was left to her as I firmly believe that responsibility should be commensurate with accountability (I believe in practising the jargon that I use in my consultancy).walk the talk and all that.

 Car was nearing the farm gate. From a distance the droning of the Drilling Rig was heard. We were coming near the gate. We crossed the gate, got down from the car and started walking towards the machine. I was concentrating on accelerating the speed of chanting of Gayatri Mantra. If I can squeeze in two three more; that much extra benefit will be there...

I saw Chinnathambi running towards us shouting “Amma Thanni Vanthacchu”... (Amma water has come)

I broke down and wept inside (breaking down in the open...never done...in Beena’s vocabulary)

I put my arm around her. The colour had returned to her face. Her journey to her becoming will surely take place now.

 If any of you are interested in putting a bore for water (or for that matter oil) I can give you the address of Swamy jhi.  I believe he has now been given the added title of Maharaj, (by the drilling rig owner’s association of south India... It is their belief that if he does the water divining  they get more business for the same number of trips) A divine person with mystical abilities..   But you will have to follow his rigour. Even astrological consultations he does (with some modesty I should say that I am also seen by the inner astrological circles, a sort of specialist especially when it comes to dealing with Mangaldosh i.e.  When the Mars planet is in the seventh house from the ascendant. My article released in the August edition of “the Journal of feminine astrology” titled ”Managal Dosh ,not a bane but a boon” received  nationwide acclaims...I also received 2000 mangal-dosh horoscopes asking me to find a match...is a different story.)

*Thopukranam...punishment given to kids when they do something shameful... Involving doing sit ups catching the ear...

**Six sigma black belt... a quality control certification process for ensuring   high quality

*** For all construction and land work the god in charge is Vastu Purusha...

Ps. Coming from a very religious background I have a great respect for spiritual swamys. This actually happened. I have added of course some masala here and there...