There’s a great deal of hype surrounding the magical effects of attracting fortunes by changing names. I think if that were so, everybody would convert his name to a lucky number and every movie too would become a hit after changing the name to a so called ‘fortunate number.’

Here, I use relevant examples to show that merely changing spellings cannot change fortunes. Karma is central and essential to success.

People Are Desperate!
Going through a barrage of email queries that come in everyday, I notice people looking for hope, believing that miracles will happen if one changes the name. The queries ranged from people complaining of insomnia, bad luck, failure in love, failed marriages, work and career disasters, childlessness and unhappiness – the usual share of human misfortunes. Most appear to believe that they suffer because they have a bad name or that their fates will change with a name change.

I feel a tremendous responsibility to bring out the limitations of these predictive sciences in the open after also reading media reports across the country of names being able to change luck. One filmy magazine even carried a numerological forecast that advised film stars to change the way they spelt their name to avoid failure and guarantee success.

It also mentioned that number 8 and 26 were especially evil!

But How Evil Are The ‘Evil’ Numbers?
Did you know that Carl Jung, the famous psychologist, George Bernard Shaw, the author and David Hume, founder of Indian National Congress were born on the 26th?

One such filmy prediction even urged Hrithik Roshan to shift his house from the 8th floor to the 10th floor to bring better luck (I wish it was so easy to cheat karma!). Another prediction advised Abhishek to drop the name Bachchan in order to succeed.

Amongst those who have changed names are actors like Sunil Shetty with an extra ‘e’, Tushar as Tussar Kapoor, Akshay as Akhshaye Khanna among others.

To Set The Record Straight (next page)