Will Ganesha speak with Bejaan gone?

Illustration/ Uday Mohite

As the co-founder and CEO of GaneshaSpeaks.com, Hemang Pandit usually has a million thoughts running through his mind. But, what keeps him up at night is the question: how to power his astrology service with an edginess that will resonate with the times? Interestingly, it was this quest for relevance that encouraged him to approach astrologer Bejan Daruwalla 17 years ago.

In 2003, along with business partner Tarun Patel, he launched GaneshaSpeaks, an astrology mobile service, in a tie-up with Hutchinson in the Gujarat circle. Pandit had given up his job with a service provider to start his own company. A caller would pay Rs 120 for a half-hour consultation. Daruwalla was roped in as advisor, to be assisted by a team of 10 astrologers. "We wanted to make astrology much wider in scope.

Bejan loved the concept and was happy to be part of it," remembers Pandit. Daruwalla was 71 then. "While he was brimming with ideas, he also cautioned that it's important for the brand to eventually be independent. After all, nobody lives forever."

On May 29, Daruwalla passed away at the age of 88. He had reportedly been battling pneumonia and brain hypoxia at a hospital in Gujarat's Gandhinagar. With the demise of one of their core members, Pandit says they are experiencing a vacuum. "We were fortunate to have him with us," he says.

Hemang Pandit and Bejan Daruwalla in a photo taken in 2003

What happens to an astrology empire when the brain behind it passes away? According to the many conspiracy theories floating on the Internet, Western astrologer Peter Vidal, who supposedly wrote under the pseudonym, continues to live through the pages of newspapers. Intriguingly, a Google search, which throws up answers to pretty much everything under the sun, barely has results to show about the man in question. A 2006 article by Dipankar Das in Life Positive, a website dedicated to alternative healing, horoscope and wellbeing, reads, "The Indian Express refuses to abandon the byline of Peter Vidal in its daily astrology section, even though he has been dead for years." A contributor on Quora, a digital question-and-answer network that began operating in 2010, writes, "Peter Vidal is the pen name of a Western astrologer, who died in the late 1990s. Subsequently, the pseudonym was used and supported by another astrologer, who continued it for approximately two years before withdrawing. Now, Peter Vidal has become a brand with multiple contributors who continue to give predictions under his name."

Over the past couple of years, Daruwalla had taken a backseat from the daily, banal predictions owing to health issues and old age, says Dharmesh Joshi, head astrologer at GaneshaSpeaks. He would only be consulted for important matters. In the second week of April this year, Daruwalla posted a video online where he spoke of the challenges the world will face in light of the Coronavirus pandemic. "After 21 May, this disease is expected to go away with Lord Ganesha's blessing," he had said. There was the inevitable risk of going wrong and he knew it. "I predict much in advance which no one cares to or dares to do. But it's a risk you take," he had said in an earlier interview.

Pandit, who helms the business and marketing, says his intention is to make the service go beyond the people who created it. Until 2010, the tagline for the brand was Astrology by Bejan Daruwalla. That year, Pandit and team, decided it was time to change their marketing tack. "We started to slowly realise that we are not only Bejan Daruwalla, but we are much wider than that. So, after consulting him, it was changed to accuracy, reliability and trust, the three principles that we felt the company represented." Pandit admits it took them a long time to come to this decision. "We feared backlash and the fact that people might not accept it easily." Despite the changes, Daruwalla continued to be the poster boy of the brand.

In 2015, came another wave of rebranding. By then, without quite realising it, the company had ventured into the mental health space, which legitimised the tagline, Your friend, astrologer and guide. They continue to run with it. "People come to us when they are under stress, and astrology is often seen as a coping device. Through predictions, we offer them the comfort of imagining a better future," says Joshi.

Dharmesh Joshi, head astrologer at GaneshaSpeaks, with Bejan Daruwalla

The 47-year-old has been associated with the company since inception. Hailing from a family of vedic pandits, Joshi joined the company as an astrologer to field routine questions regarding marriage prospects, children, financial security and career. "It was due to the countless hours I spent interacting with Bejanji that I could foray into global predictions to do with the economy, politics and entertainment," he says. More often than not, their conclusions would match. "You can say astrology is a science, because it uses a set of rules about the relative movement of planets to generate predictions and explanations for events. Our job is to give you information about what the planets are doing right now, and how that affects each sign."

If predictions match more or less, what gives some astrologers the edge over others? According to Joshi, it is the ability to build a powerful vocabulary and break down the enormous information in a way that's comprehensible to the average Joe. "That's where Bejanji trumped. Apart from offering accurate predictions, he had a unique presentation which made him so successful," says Joshi. The company has over 500 astrologers, whose services and guidance can be sought on the website, over the phone or on mobile apps. In fact, it was also one of the first astrology syndicates to have a dedicated radio station for horoscopes.

Pandit says one of the reasons they have been able to survive and thrive is because of the quality of astrologers they recruit. "We carry out the whole drill of an interview, written test and group discussion. Even after they join the organisation, they have an assessment every six months. The idea is to keep learning and evolving."

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