Your Friendly Philosopher & Guide

She was a bit uncomfortable asking him right on the face because she thought he might pay on his own. Also she didn’t ask because she thought he would have forgotten and will pay later. The next day morning she sent a SMS to him saying – you forgot to pay, and since then there is no communication from his side! This is when she buzzed me to ask – is this normal in India? What else can I do – I just laughed!

Not only with her, this kind of incident happens with all who take up service as their career – like doctors, teachers, massagers, spiritual teachers and astrologers, where in there is no physical product involved. People tend to take the value of ‘TIME’ for granted, and there are many who feel that they are doing a favour by consulting these professionals!

It is true that there are many arts that should not be done for money alone. But then the world will be a beautiful place, if these service providers are given free homes to live, free monthly groceries, and free vehicles to travel. If that was true – free consultation will always be on the top priority for these professionals. The house owner never considers your profession on the 30th, the grocery store guy never gives you a packet of biscuit for free, and a delayed bill is never exempted of fine just because you are a doctor!

I remember an incident when a multi millionaire would visit my teacher every 2nd Saturday. He will come in a good high-end car, consult my teacher for an hour or so, and then while leaving would say – So Gopal, last month I had to give you Rs 1000 add Rs 200 to it. My teacher would coolly say ‘fine’ without a sign of irritation on his face. I got damn pissed off once – I asked my teacher - “how could you let him go? Does he think you have no other work in life but to counsel him?” And my teacher said, “he thinks he fooled me, but there is someone called God who will fool him.”

In my initial period of career as an astrologer, I never used to charge anyone because I used to enjoy doing the reading it is another story that none bothered to pay me. Then I thought I would never have a specified fees for consultation rather I will let the people to decide - and I got Rs 11 as my first consultation fees in 2004. I saw when given a choice – not many pay more than Rs 100 per chart per consultation per hour! It was then I fixed Rs 500 per chart per consultation per hour – which people don’t mind either!

There was another confusion, which persisted for long. Should I charge my friends & how much? Should I charge my relatives & how much? Should I charge strangers & how much? Or Should I charge acquaintances & how much? And should I do free readings also? There were two things I learnt as time progressed – that expectation is the mother of all fuck ups, and that I can sell myself for cheap but I will never sell astrology for cheap!

It was then I charted a model for myself, which might be useful for someone who takes up service as his/her new career in future –

The things I decided -

*I will not expect anything from GOOD/CLOSE friends, if they pay – it is just a bonus – because I value friendship more than anything else

*I will leave the choice to them (they can pay whatever they feel right) if they are acquaintances, or client turned friends, or referral sent by my friends

*I will be very particular about fees with complete strangers (who might eventually turn into acquaintances or close friends later)

*I will do free readings only for those who cannot afford me, who are jobless, and who are in a bad shape financially (this again depends – if they come in a car and then say they are financially down this rule doesn’t apply). And I will do free readings only for those whom I feel I should - and this depends on various factors like – his/her behavior with the astrologer & his amount of belief in astrology & God.

*And with relatives – I will do a reading and ask them to donate some amount to temples. This way neither I get embarrassed taking the fees nor do I do it for free!

I told my massager friend that I am going to blog about this topic today, and she said please do so that she can SMS the URL to her friend!

Moral of the story – Time is precious – literally!