As a child, this writer remembers attending a magic show, where her then five-year-old brother was called upon by a magician, and made to drink half a glass of water and pee on stage. While the audience had a good laugh, he was shocked—his pants weren’t wet. Almost 25 years later, another magician, a mentalist to be precise, played tricks with writers of Sunday mid-day—from guessing the numbers on a dice to accurately telling us about our childhood crush. But it was his last trick, also his signature one, which blew our minds. He made this writer call two of her colleagues at the same time without even touching her phone. 

“Mentalism is a branch of magic, which revolves only around the mind. It is a combination of behavioural psychology, neuro-linguistic programming and body language,” says the mentalist and Lokhandwala resident Naman Anand, 25, leading us into his tricks. Anand was eight years old when he started performing magic. By age 17, he had already gravitated towards the nuanced art of mentalism.