People say, oh, do that. An astrologer tells me to do something.

When I was about 21, an astrologer told me that I was going to meet the man of my dreams, and that his name was going to be Eric, right?

The Chaldeans answered before the king, and said, There is not a man upon the earth that can shew the king's matter therefore there is no king, lord, nor ruler, that asked such things at any magician, or astrologer, or Chaldean.

The Chaldeans answered before the king, and said, There is not a man upon the earth that can shew the king's matter therefore there is no king, lord, nor ruler, that asked such things at any magician, or astrologer, or Chaldean.

As a believing Hindu, I make no claims to pure rationalism myself. But I am bemused when a minister s swearing in ceremony is delayed because an astrologer told him that the time was not auspicious to take the oath, or when a candidate s election papers are filed at the last possible minute to avoid the malign influences of the stars at other times of the day.

This sense of multiple identities is something that Sen himself highlighted mischievously in his book Identity and Violence The same person can be, for example, a British citizen, of Malaysian origin, with Chinese racial characteristics, a stockbroker, a non vegetarian, an asthmatic, a linguist, a bodybuilder, a poet, an opponent of abortion, a bird watcher, an astrologer, and one who believes that God invented Darwin to test the gullible.