"Congratulations, you've just been owned!"

So, this is gonna be rather embarrassing to share than exciting.

Ever since, I’ve gotten used to hearing remarks about my very striking birth mark just below the centre of my two eyes. At times, you wouldn’t notice it and suddenly it gets so red that you will ask with concern if I’ve hurt myself. Even those people I’ve known for a long time will suddenly ask what happened and I will just answer back saying it’s been there forever.

So here goes the story.

I was walking down Queen’s Road last Wednesday. My pace was quite fast as I had to get back before 2PM at work. Randomly, I walked past this tall, neat-looking Indian guy wearing pin-striped suit and pants, then out of nowhere pointing to my forehead and said, “You’re lucky.” I tried to walk still but then he continued talking, saying I’ve got a lucky forehead and it will bring me luck come January 2011. I gave my trust like easily so I stopped and listened. He said that my 2008 and 2009 brought me bad luck and that 2011 will bring me 3 good news. Like a fortune teller, he said I was kind and honest, etc etc. and asked to see my palm. Yah, it’s true, he must be for real.

He then opened a black clutch wallet and showed me a black and white picture, pointing to somebody he told was his “teacher” to prove somehow that what he was about to unfold to me were true, prophetic to say. My eyes searched inside and saw a few solo pictures of gurus like the one I’ve seen in the movie “Eat Pray Love”. I thought like it was a “Liz Gilbert moment” (due to hangover from the book).

Then he asked if I had 2 minutes since he said he got no time as well as he has a meeting to go to. Without further thinking, I said yes and walked with him and sat on a bench. He then started writing notes on a small yellow paper then crumpled it and asked me to put on my palm. Then he asked me to choose a color and like a few David Blaine tricks the one color I did not choose was the one written on the paper on my palm. Like “Whoa!” I thought to myself, how did he do that? He wrote again that on January I will meet a guy who will become my friend and sort of do business with me, that if that guy asks me if I could do it, I just say yes according to the Indian. He even wrote the figures of my “fortune” on the paper. I got lost with the zeroes I couldn’t tell if it was millions or just thousands. In the middle of his conversation, he reached for his pocket and took something. That small thing he took he put it near his lips like blessing it. After doing it, he gave it to me and said not to show it to anybody. I thought it was a stone but when I’ve composed myself after and checked it, it was a red seed, like an acorn. And last of his instructions, I shouldn’t cut my nails or hair come Tuesday. (I’m thinking to myself now as I write this, I am sooo stupid).

I was almost sold in what he was prophesising. But then he said that I was gonna get pregnant, that it’s coming. "That's impossible," I actually told him. He said it's gonna happen. I said to myself this guy must be kidding me already. Like how is it gonna happen with the big P and everything, right? I said I had to go. Then the thing I knew was sure to happen, happened. He was looking around while almost whispering about a donation. “Ok, sure, I’ve got no choice, have I”, thinking to myself. I opened my bag and got HK30 and put the notes on the spread wallet. He looked at them and said something like, “My dear sister, no, 300.” P***ngina! Sabi ko na nga ba!

I said I 've got no more. Like a store owner, he started our little bargain and opted for 100. Firmly as I could, I said I didn’t have 100. Using his “fortune telling skills” I suppose, he replied, “No. You have. You are honest.” Til now, his accent still rings a bell whenever I recount this. Just to end everything, I told him I’ve just got 50 bucks left and like those owners in Mong Kok desperate for a sale, he agreed. I know it was true when he said it was good enough since he can ask somebody for 20 more dollars. He’s good at that. We shook our hands like we did good business. After, I walked as faster as I could until I was out of sight of him.

I was shaking and scared after that. I didn’t know why, if it was because I was swindled or a total stranger told my “fortune” or what. I do not know, until now. Maybe in the part where he advised not to tell it to someone. Of course, I would want to believe in the good luck he was saying, who wouldn’t. But now, I realised how dumb dumb I was during those moments. At that time, he might be laughing at the back of his mind.

When I got back to the office, I googled “Indian fortune tellers” and resulted to lots of page. I clicked one and read on.

http://www.seatofourpants.com/2009/10/02/unexplainable-indian-fortune-teller-experience-check/

To my amazement, their stories were exactly the same as mine, from the streets of London, Sinagpore, Australia and others. There's gonna be an Indian guy introducing himself as a guru, telling you fortune, writing on papers, giving some kind of an amulet, asking you to choose a color/flower, asking you not to cut your hair/nails on Tuesday, and lastly asking for a donation. And oh, last but not least, stopping you because of a star/mark on your forehead. It was then it finally sunk in that I was duped dumbfoundingly. Like everyone else, I was lured into his fortune telling skills, unfolding the “future” only to “voluntarily” give him 80 bucks.

In this incident, I don’t have an “on-the-bright-side” moment to look back at. There’s just basically none, I was simply owned, fooled, and cheated.