‘Star’ power'

“Lovely young people who found themselves compatible in every sense of the term couldn’t tie the knot because their horoscopes didn’t match! ” It was a perfect match. Well, almost. Both of them were in their early twenties, MBA grads who had spent a year abroad and were now settling down to their workplaces. But it was over even before it began. The two lovely young people who found themselves compatible in every sense of the term couldn’t tie the knot because their horoscopes didn’t match!“Unfortunately, in the last decade or so there has been a resurgence of ‘horoscope compatibility’. Apart from parents, even youngsters themselves want to have their horoscopes matched these days. In the process, they lose out on great matches. “I can only counsel them, in the end it has to be their decision,” says Urvashi Shah, who runs a city based marriage bureau. She reasons it out, “I tell them, if you marry for love would you bother to match horoscopes?”
However, there are some who believe in ’star’ power. “In an age where nothing is sacrosanct anymore, why take chances? When I marry I want to ensure to the best of my abilities that everything is right. Matching horoscopes gives me that security and after all it is all about faith,” says Anant Shah, 28, a research analyst.
For some, it is a matter of past experiences. “I have faith in astrology. I have seen numerous examples wherein a couple has had an unhappy life because their stars didn’t match,” says Nirali Dakwala, 30, a teacher.
Sometimes love conquers. Shaina Salat, branch head of an internet marketing firm and her computer engineer husband Hersh Bhatt chose to put more emphasis on love. “We met through the internet and fell in love. My husband’s family is a great believer in astrology. However, both of us were certain that we wouldn’t let anything like horoscope come in the way of us getting married.”So Salat and Bhatt made a decision that they wouldn’t get their horoscopes checked for compatibility at all. “It was the wisest thing we ever did. If they wouldn’t have matched, we would have been in a dilemma . His parents saw our point of view and agreed with us. We believed in ourselves and it worked.”
Similarly Paurvi Pandya and Saurabh Pathak also made a prudent decision when they decided to get married four years ago. “My mother believed in horoscopes. But when we met through an arranged setting we were so smitten by each other that we decided that nothing would come between us. So, to be on a safer side, we gave the horoscope-matching a go by and my mother was only too happy to agree.”
Now they thank their ’stars’ for not being a part of the process of star matching! (Times of India, India 20 June 2007)