Where we end up after our undergraduate degrees!

When students get hung up on, and sometimes extremely defensive about, their college majors, I remind them to ease up  because the odds are pretty good that their income-earnings are probably not going to be from the knowledge gained in their majors.  Not the content-knowledge of geography or literature or chemistry ... but, they, like almost everybody else, don't pay attention to me at all, and I am often left wondering whether it is my view that is screwed up!  (editor: stop wondering. It has been confirmed many times over!!!)

And then I come across yet another story of life after undergraduate studies.  This time, it is even more bizarre than mine.  Apparently a classmate from my engineering days is now a much sought after (which means highly paid as well) astrologer in India.  Yes, astrology!  The guy is proving in his own ways that there is a sucker born every minute :)  Hey, Michael Shermer, you want to duel with this astrologer with an engineering background?

Anyway, here is a recent news about him, in the Google Group for my class:

CHENNAI- based astrologer Vastu Venkatesh is in the news once again.
This time he has nothing to do with the changes M. S. Dhoni makes as the Chennai Super Kings CSK captain, but in the cricketer's own wedding date....Venkatesh is paid a regular salary as astrological consultant and decides on a lot of issues in the Chennai team.

How funny!  Venkatesh, who was my classmate, is now determining the future of one of India's biggest celebrities.  Life can't be more bizarre than this.  But, wait, there is more:

Venkatesh, however, did not go to Dehradun for the wedding. Insiders said Venkatesh does not attend weddings and his job ends with matching the horoscopes of the boy and girl.

And, the news item says this was "According to one of Venkatesh's assistants" ... "one of" .. so, how many assistants does he have in his profession as an astrologer?  er, "astrological consultant" ...

Hey, students, take note: your undergraduate major does not matter at all!

Anyway, my curiosity about this guy led me to another news item:

With an annual salary of close to Rs 2 crore, Vastu Venkatesan is extremely close to Srinivasan and has been allegedly nicknamed Shakuni - a cunning advisor to the Kauravas in the Indian epic Mahabharata, who conspires to defeat the Pandavas in a game of dice.

In Purchasing Power Parity terms, Indian Rupees two crores is the equivalent of $2,000,000.  That is his salary as the astrological consultant.  Fantastic, man; here is to wishing that you can fool a lot more people into parting their money with you :)

It appears that he runs a charitable organization too.  That alone is a reflection of the money that keeps flowing in ...