The intuitive lady of Ramaipatti

Modern education has somehow taken away our ability to intuit, empathise and feel compassion in the way she can

I’ve never been much of a believer in anything, let alone black magic and witchdoctors. So when our driver in Mirzapur tells me about the old woman in Ramaipatti who can not only ward off the evil eye but also soothe away people’s troubles, I’m visibly unimpressed. “Meet Mai once,” he says, “and then decide for yourself!” He insists we stop for a chat, and reluctantly, I walk into the narrow gali where she lives.

Mai, or mother (everyone calls her that), turns out to be a tiny, blind woman in a white sari, too old to walk, camping alone in