Predict Me?

Ok before you start, if you don't know my date of birth please goto the comments on this blog and write what you think my zodiac sign is?

Seriously.....please do it. I have a point.


This dude called me a typical Aries...

As peace loving and tolerant as I am, there are things that can irritate me. I don't like people telling me that I am a function of a single variable, my date of birth. And I strongly advice that you don't try it even for fun, unless ofcourse you want to be knocked out like this poor fellow.

I am arrogant enough to believe that I can choose what I want to be. Actually, I mean "I chose to be arrogant enough to believe that I can choose what I want to be". I own my mistakes, successes, strengths, weaknesses, shortcomings....I like to think I have the choice to be what I want to be and dictate my own fate.

It is shamelessly denying the responsibility and accountability for your actions if you admit that you are defined by the day of your birth. It is abysmal escapism where you blame all your fortune/misfortune on the day of your birth and do nothing to overcome it. Even stupider is the assumption that everybody who is born in the same month any year would have similar behavior.

Several people including me, read the horoscopes just because it makes for an amusing read. When you are in a boys hostel deep in a jungle you will be very amused to read that "Since Venus and Pluto have not yet left your travel, academia, and multicultural sector, this is an awesome time for romantic weekends away from home and love affairs with foreigners". I don't see any harm in amusing yourselves a little, especially in aforementioned circumstances. But taking it seriously to start making decisions based on it is ridiculous.

Many a people wait for the right alignment of the distant planets to move into a new house, start a new job, take the marriage vows, buy a new vehicle. At a grander scale we have governments swearing in at the right time and rockets launched at the right muhurtham. Of course rockets do need a precise window of planetary alignment but there is no reason to believe that the alignment that favors "operating new machinery" would work for the rockets since the calculation of this muhurtham is based on an analysis done in prehistoric times with assumptions like mysterious snakes swallowing up the sun and moon at regular intervals to cause the eclipses.

Some of the analysis is reasonable, like the full moon being auspicious for doing anything and the no moon day not so auspicious. Back in the pre electricity days Sun and the moon were the chief sources of light and the full moon night would have enough light and is generally safer to go around as you can see the surroundings. So in defense of our predecessor, the smart analyst, he must have based his recommendations on the emperical data he had. A simple compilation of the data would have shown him that it is 20 times more likely that you get hurt on the no moon night than the full moon night. But any respectable modern analyst should be able see that it is not because of the phase of the moon but because of the difference of visibility. So it does not make much sense to wait for full 15 days for the full moon when we have man made lights powerful enough to replicate the midday visibility. And we did not have all the print media, 24x7 news channels, flashy billboards to communicate to people. The most effective and efficient form of communication was through religious texts. Nothing trickled down to the common man as well as the religious texts. Any and every major event required the presence of the learnt priest who is well read and has expertise in the religious texts. So the religious texts were the most efficient way of enforcing public policy and seem to have been put to good use by adapting them to their respective times. It worked well until mass communication tools became widely available and the religious texts stopped keeping up with the pace.

Now coming back to the horoscopes, I always find people who tell me I am a highly typical Aries. However they all think so only after knowing my date of birth. They suddenly see all the traits that would define Aries in me. While there might be some truth to the traits because when people learn that their zodiac tend to behave like that, they become more conscious of the traits , especially the ones they like in their zodiac, and they start getting more prominent in their behavior without any special effort on their part. So a very interesting test would be to see how much the people who are aware of their zodiac confirm to its traits versus the people who don't know their zodiac. I would also really like to know how many people would expect me to be Aries when they don't know my DOB. I would be very surprised if it is significantly greater than 8.33%. (1/12th), assuming I get a good sample size.

If after reading this, you think this post is very typical of Aries, I pray that God bless you with
2 dozen healthy kids