Bikram Choudhury: yogi or baddie?

This yoga guru, an American citizen of Indian origin, has been accused of megalomania, sexual harassment, rape, and abusive behaviour. Is this evident on his hand? Can the hand tell us the inside story?

Bikram Choudhury has a fleshy hand with well-developed mounts of Venus and Moon, a broad palm and shortish fingers. The base of the hand is developed. His hand shape would fall into the “practical” hand type. His fingers are more or less straight except for the Jupiter (index) finger. The first phalanges are developed but so are the third, particularly those of Jupiter and Mercury. The lines of his palm

Adele is sensitive and emotional by nature

Adele, the talented British singer-songwriter, made a name for herself at a young age. She is known as a compassionate and idealistic person.

This is not contradicted by her hands. The skin of Adele’s palms seems soft. The ridges of her hand are refined and the lines fine. The mounts are developed though not excessively. The mount of Upper Mars is underdeveloped. The fingers, evenly set, are a good length, neither short not long and have conic tips. The thumb is long with a long will phalange but not thick. The palm is a broad one but neither too broad not too long.

From the point of view of palmistry, there is a good balance if one examines just the shape of her hand and fingers. Evenly set, straight fingers are not as common

The hands of Joaquin Phoenix the Joker

The world is talking about Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker – a blockbuster. The actor is much written about, as much for his controversial statements (pranks?) as for his extraordinary talent. Some have said he doesn’t like fame but that’s not really true. Joaquin Phoenix's hands may not show him to be money-minded, but he thrives in the limelight.

His hand is a good size, with shortish fingers and a long palm. There are some distinctive features on the hand. For one thing, the Apollo (ring) finger is long and the little finger, although of a decent length, is clearly low-set, and the Jupiter (index) finger is a little short. The second phalanges are shortish but the first and third phalanges are long. The mounts on his hand are developed with the moon (especially Upper Moon) and Venus mounts are well developed. The actor has a good thumb with a normal balance of the first and second phalanges. The lines on the palm are clear enough, with a short girdle of Venus and a Simian line on the right, active hand.

These signs portray a versatile and creative personality, possibly a little over the top. Being a showman

Chow Yun Fat's hand reading

Chow Yun Fat is known to be down-to-earth, humble, charitable and a person who likes the simple things in life.

Most of this is confirmed by his hand, but not all of it. There is nothing on his hand that suggests a philanthropic temperament, yet he has planned to donate his fortune to charity. His hand will give us some answers.

He has a long, fleshy palm with a slightly high-set thumb held a little close to his hand and shortish conic fingers which are more or less straight. The first phalanges are long, particularly that of the Apollo (ring) finger. The second phalanges are all short and the third phalanges seem normal. The lines on his hand are

Saif Ali Khan: Does he deserve his success?

It’s a little tricky to read a hand when nothing stands out. This does not mean that there is nothing on the hand which is out of the ordinary. It’s just that when one sees photos online, one cannot see the details. As I have had several requests to read Saif Ali Khan’s hands, one just recently, I decided to give it a go.

Saif Ali Khan has normal-sized hands, perhaps a little larger than normal, a broad palm, slightly thick fingers, developed mounts of Venus, Moon and Jupiter, and fingers of a good length including the thumb. The third phalanges are developed, except for the Apollo finger. The headline, though straight at the start, slopes into the moon mount. The heartline looks short but actually,

A collection of posts on the unreliability of predictive palmistry

The Hawa Mahal Murders

I did not post this month because I was busy with the launch of my thriller – The Hawa Mahal Murders. The manuscript of this book was a contest winner at the Pune International Literary Festival (PILF) last year and it was launched with Javed Akhtar at PILF19, on the 20th of September 2019. It is available on Amazon and on Flipcart, for those who like to read thrillers. It's got suspense, mystery and well...it's entertainment!

Let me get back to hand reading, the topic you are all actually interested in.

I have this recurring dialogue with those who write to me on email. It's usually about them wanting to know their future. I get at least two emails a week on this topic.

This is despite so many posts on this website like How hard is it to change your future, How much control we have over our future, Why do you want to know your future and whether Palmistry can predict future events.

I feel like I have been crying myself hoarse on this subject. But the belief still persists that palmistry = future predictions.

Palmistry's greatest use is

What the hands of MG Ramachandran (MGR) show

MG Ramachandran was considered almost a God in Tamil Nadu and was known as "Makkal Thilagam" (People's King).*

He was popularly known as MGR. There are not too many photos of his hand on the net, but the hand shape is visible. His palm was rectangular and his fingers longish. In particular, he had a long Mercury (little) finger and a long thumb, both low-set. His fingers were held a little apart from each other but his thumb was held a little closer to his palm. The thumb phalanges were balanced. His Jupiter (index) finger seems slightly low-set as well. The Venus and Jupiter mounts on his hand are well developed, and so is Lower Moon. From what little one can see of the palmar lines,

Satyajit Ray, the personality

Considering that Satyajit Ray is such a legendary film/movie director, there isn’t too much information about his personality on the internet. There is a lot written about his achievements. Ray was more than just a filmmaker – he was a writer, music composer, calligrapher, artist and film critic. Yet, not many of us know who Satyajit Ray was as a human being. Perhaps his hands can give us some clues.

It wasn’t surprising to find a long, fine and curved headline ending on the Moon mount on Ray's hands, the hallmark of a creative mind. Such headlines show intelligence and imagination. The headline, however,

Muhammad Ali was humble at heart

Muhammad Ali proclaimed himself to be great and then went on to prove it. He was a flamboyant personality, known to brag about his achievements, past, present and future. That is probably why people think of Muhammad Ali as someone with high confidence levels and a big ego. His hands tell a different story.

Ali had a fleshy hand, with a rectangular palm and pronounced mounts of Venus and Moon. Lower Mars is developed, but not Upper Mars. His fingers are not

Freddie Mercury – a brilliant life cut short

Freddie Mercury was a rock star whose last days were tragic but he left behind a great musical legacy. With his incredible stage presence and incomparable voice, he became a Rock icon. He died at the age of 45, but his hand shows that his natural lifespan was a long one and he had good biological health. Had he not been struck down by AIDS, he would have lived to a ripe old age.

Freddie's lifeline was good (clear and long) but as you can see from this example, the lifeline cannot show the length of life. It can however show the natural lifespan if one is not attacked by disease or killed by accident. Of course, it is likely

Christopher Nolan – a brilliant director

Christopher Nolan, the Hollywood movie director, is known to be a genius. It is difficult to write about Chris Nolan (the Dark Knight Trilogy and Inception are some of his famous works), especially as one has so little to work with. The photos of his left hand (he is left-handed) which are available on the net are few and also hazy.

The shape of his hand is clearly visible, however. His hands are large, with a broad palm, and seem to be a little stiff. The fingers, tapering at the end, are neither short nor too long, and appear to be evenly set except for the Mercury (little) finger which is a little low-set. His heartline is curved, and the headline though sloping

Marlon Brando - a large-hearted genius

Marlon Brando is a legend. His hands make it clear why he became the star that he was.

Brando had fairly large hands, with a broad, fleshy palm and a long, curvy heartline going towards the area between his first two fingers. He had a shapely thumb of a good size, and it was low-set, nicely waisted, and had a strong will phalange. The mounts of Lower Mars, Venus and Upper Moon were the most well-developed mounts on his hands. The other mounts were developed too. The lines seem clear enough and there is a semblance of a double headline. This second headline

Abraham Lincoln's hands reveal his true self

Much has been much written about Abraham Lincoln’s personality traits. His character has in fact been elevated to that of the perfect human being.

Do these lofty opinions of Lincoln's character match the signs on his hand?

The adjectives used to describe Abe Lincoln make him appear to be flawless. He was known to be sincere, simple, persistent, modest, guileless, humble, loving, compassionate, warm, forgiving, generous, fair, responsible, helpful, thoughtful and non-materialistic. And he was an independent thinker who was also energetic, hard-working, realistic,  straightforward, controlled, disciplined, cautious, ethical, intellectual and possessed integrity, wisdom and a sense of humour.

If he had any faults at all it was his introversion and his melancholic and detached personality. One cannot help but wonder how a person can be loving and warm and also introverted and detached? Has Abe Lincoln's personality become the stuff of myth and legend now that he has been gone for over 150 years?

Is Kamal Hassan suited to a political career?

What do Kamal Hassan's hands tell about his personality? He has well-developed mounts of Lower Mars, Jupiter, Venus and Moon – above normal development. However, this is more pronounced on his left, passive hand. The first and second knots of his fingers are developed, and the fingers are straight and slightly thick,

particularly the third phalanges. The little (Mercury) finger is of a good length and held apart, while the middle (Saturn) finger could well be short. The first phalanges are not particularly long, but the second phalanges are good and the Jupiter (index) finger is conic. The thumb is long, with a strong first phalange. The heartline is better as compared to the headline, in the sense that it is evener. The heartline is also long and forked, although it is slightly shorter on the right, active hand.

What do these signs show about his personality? Would he be a better actor or a better politician? Or could he excel in both careers?

Kim Kardashian is not your regular airhead

One would have expected that Kim Kardashian’s hands would be that of a superficial, vain and artificial person. Instead, I found myself looking at the hands of a down-to-earth, savvy woman. Considering her high net worth, this wasn't surprising.

Kim Kardashian, a reality TV star from the United States, has normal-sized hands, with a good balance of the fingers and the palm. The Venus mount is developed and so is the middle part of the Moon mount. None of the mounts on her palm is excessively developed and her head and heart lines are long and in their proper place on the palm, neither set too low nor too high. The thumb is normal length and the will phalange is good, although the thumb is held close to her palm and could be a little high-set. The fingers are broad but the first and second phalanges are of a good length. She has a long Mercury (little) finger which is slightly bent, a short Saturn (middle) finger and a slightly bent Jupiter (index) finger.

All these signs reveal a person who is clever, calculating and

Mukesh Ambani's hand reading

Mukesh Ambani's personality can be seen from his hands to some extent. He has large palms with fingers on the shorter side. The first and second phalanges of his fingers are all long, significantly so. 

The thumb is of a good length, although supple, and the top phalange is long. The lines of his hand are fairly clear too, with the heartline long and reaching the Jupiter mount and the headline appears to be forked. The lifeline stops halfway but restarts later, although the latter cannot be verified because of a lack of good photos of the hand.

There is no doubt that Mukesh Ambani’s intellectualism, energy, and business acumen are significantly above average.

Unfortunately, there are no photographs of Ambani’s left, passive hand which would have revealed his inherited personality and also served as a comparison to his right hand. Considering that Mukesh Ambani is Dhirubhai’s son, we must assume that