Page 146 - A Banker Down the Rabbit Hole

42. Curious cases of fortune telling

Prediction of my overseas posting
In the month of February, the result of written test for overseas posting
was declared and two of us, the faculty members at Staff College of the
bank, were declared successful as per final merit list. The list had 60
candidates who were eligible to participate in the final round, four times
the number of vacancies at overseas branches (estimated to be 15). In
March, same year, we got interview call letters scheduled for a date in
the month of April.

One of my faculty colleagues told me that an Officer posted at our branch
in the same building of Staff College was well known for accurate
predictions. He proposed that we both would go to meet him and get
prediction about our success in the final round interview. I did not believe
in such predictions and did not show any interest. Moreover, his
predictions positive or negative could affect our psychology and we might
not do enough hard work or may be depressed instead of focusing fully
on the preparation for the interview. But next day again, he insisted we
should go to him. He asked me to just give him company to the fortune
teller officer. We went to meet him. My colleague told him the purpose
of the meeting. He asked my colleague about his date of birth and the
common name by which he was known. Then he drew a rectangle on a
piece of paper. Then he joined the four dots of corners within the
rectangle crossing the diagonals and wrote some numbers in all the
triangles so created within the rectangle.

He asked him to close the eyes and place his index finger on any of the
triangles. He did as directed. He declared that he had very strong chance

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