Not quite Doctor Who, but close

This Andheri 'doctor' claims he can predict chronic diseases without even meeting a patient, using just his multi-wired machine. All he needs is a passport photo of the patient, to 'cure' you of anything from cancer to colic. Our scepticism, however, remains intact

It looks like any other bungalow on a narrow street in Andheri. But it houses a machine that could put NASA to shame.

The life system machine at Mehak Welness Centre run by Rajeev Mehra, a stress management and alternative medicine practioner, comes with four straps that are harnessed on to a patient's wrists and ankles, while another is fastened across the forehead.

The machine that costs Rs 10 lakh, draws power from a laptop and looks like a DVD player with four blinking lights. Very futuristic.

But the conversation with Mehra is even more science fiction-like. "I can look at a picture of a person and list the chronic illnesses that will befall them forty years hence," says Mehra.

"The machine is 20 years ahead of its time. It reads a person's chromosomes and offers the solution to bad genes," he claims.

Faithful locals and foreigners keep in touch with him over e-mail, and Mehra's most favourite patient seems to be a Singaporean dog, who, he says, was cured of a fatal illness.u00a0

He also claims to haved treated patients of depression, cancer, AIDS, hair loss, bed wetting and even 'ladies' problems. Mehra charges a grand total of Rs 1.89 lakh to 'cure' people in the first stage of cancer through 21 sessions, exposing them to 'the vibrations of the universe'.

He says he can even estimate a patient's death, but he has stopped divulging such informationu00a0-- because "it freaks people out".

There's New Age, and then there's extortion. Which one do you think this is?