Saif Khan and Kareena Kapoor's relationship is heading for splitsville, Aishwarya Rai is not pregnant but will be expecting a girl next year and Barack Obama will become the US president.
This sudden insight into the 2009 headlines is thanks to well-known Bollywood astrologer Ajai Bhambi's. And as far as we know, he is hardly ever wrong.
Based in Delhi, Bhambi has been a regular feature in Dubai newspapers and radio stations for some 15 years advising people on their cosmic state of affairs.
From a young age, Bhambi was able to tell his family, who lived in a small village in central India, about events that were yet to happen. This was 40 years ago and his family did not have telephones - the only communication was through letters.
"So I would tell my mum ‘your brother was in an accident' and she would ask ‘how do you know?' A few days later we would get a letter saying somebody was hit."
"After I did this a couple times my mum got scared of me. Whenever she could see I was going to say something she would say ‘keep quiet, I don't want to know'."
Mastering mystic arts
His family and outsiders' discomfort with his ability caused him to push it aside throughout his teenage years. He studied to become a lawyer and practised for all of two years before realising his calling.
"I was always fascinated with the unknown and questions about our controller, why things happen the way they do and if we could do something about it."
Since then Bhambi has become adept in palm reading, face reading, numerology, tea and coffee reading among others. "You name the technique and I can do it."
After studying these methods, he mastered Vedic astrology and was a pioneer in computer astrology, where astrology calculations to make charts is done using this technology.
"When astrologers make people's charts they have to make lots and lots of calculations. Now it's (computer astrology) very insignificant but at that point in time it was a big deal."
Bhambi says he was among the first people to have brought astrology to newspapers and magazines in India and abroad. These days he also makes television appearances. "When I came to Dubai 15 years ago, people were very sceptical about astrology - nobody would talk about it but now we have it on the radio every day. It's the in thing."
The astrologer describes himself as a "cosmic weatherman" and explains how it works.
"I work with people at a very senior level - film producers, politicians, industrialists - who sometimes doubt their actions. Depending on the things moving in the atmosphere and cosmos, I'll tell him ‘look buddy, if you want to go out go ahead but carry an umbrella with you'."
Bhambi claims to have made several important predictions in sports, entertainment and politics that have come true - the outcome of last year's T20 Cricket World Cup, the last IPL final, Hillary Clinton's defeat and Benazir Bhutto's death.
As for events of the future he says Shah Rukh Khan's career will soon head for a downward spiral. "I see facing many problems in the future in terms of his craft. He has been rising and this rise will stop – he will struggle to remain at Mount Everest. Others will take over."
Despite concerns about Amy Winehouse's health and mental stability, Bhambi says this year will be good to her especially from August till June next year. The eccentric Tom Cruise will still be around and maintain his level of success.
The American economy will face a lot of trouble and will not improve until 2010. Nuclear energy will be a contentious issue in years to come.
Sceptics
The world is also changing he says. "Relationships these days are based on need and demand. Emotions we held dear to us for many centuries are diminishing. This need based world will reach its peak over the next ten to fifteen years."
Many people are believers of Bhambi's abilities but he has sceptics too. "People react very well by and large but sceptics are there and react very badly. We often get into debates – they will not understand me and I will not understand them. This is life."
