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Life and beyond
"You were here before as the wife of an important person in the area. You played an active role in the community and helped many people. You died at a relatively young age after contracting an infectious disease. Even now you need to be careful about infectious diseases."

This is what a young woman who walked into a tiny cubicle in the bowels of Borella junction learnt about her pera athme (previous birth), along with advice that she take certain precautions in this birth to prevent a recurrence.

Astro India Private Limited, located in the bing ge (subway) of Borella not only provides information on people's previous births but also has many more programmes at the touch of a computer key to fullfil the yearnings of humans to seek more knowledge than they have at their command, about the past, the present and the future.

"Among our popular programmes are the Supiri Divyanadi Pariganaka Weda Satahana dealing with previous births; Divasa that lays bare the happenings in one's life since birth; Dana Lakshmi which shows the way to gain wealth and prosperity soon; Pemsara detailing one's love life and the physical and mental characteristics of one's partner and Feng Shui on how to arrange one's home and life for systematic improvement and maximum benefit," says Nalin Weerasinghe, 25, seated behind a computer.

"We were the first to start computer-generated astrological casting of horoscopes," says Nalin stressing that the person's time of birth is of utmost importance. "Based on thousands of ancient Indian puskola poth, this is the first computer-generated programme not only in Asia but in Sinhala in Sri Lanka. The details are given by feeding the computer with a person's time and date of birth and also the district where the person was born."

The horoscope is cast in a minute or two with predictions of what lies ahead . The Astro India company was set up in 1998 by a team of young people in their twenties headed by Roshan Samaratunge who felt there was a lacuna in the provision of such services through the computer in Sinhala.

To spread the word about this service that people could have at the touch of a few keys, the company ran a promotional campaign, locating its office in the hub of Colombo - opposite the Fort Railway Station. Later a mobile Astro India stall atop a lorry covered the length and breadth of Sri Lanka, from Matara to Gampaha, Kirindiwela to Embilipitiya, Moneragala to Kandy, Galle to Kurunegala and Panadura.

"In each city we stay for about 20 days, janathawa gavasena then wala," says Nalin explaining that they go among the crowds and explain the concept. The feedback has been good, with about 80% coming back to them, especially in Borella to say that the information is true.

On average between 25-40 people visit their booth in Borella, mainly on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. "A lot of young people come here to check out whether their porondang match," explains Nalin, but a majority are around 35 or 40 years old.

Astro India has latterly ventured into Feng Shui, to make it available to the large mass of people. At present it is popular only among people in Colombo. "We want to popularize it in the outstations too," says Nalin.

Pointing to replicas of the laughing god and the three-legged frog, Nalin demonstrates how one has to place a coin in the mouth of the frog and keep it facing one's front door to bring good luck and prosperity. -Kumudini

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