Astrologers predict hard times for men, their women shaken!

Puducherry, Jan 18 (UNI) Women in this union territory are busy offering special 'poojas' to protect their men from any ill-effects, following advice from astrologers.

Astrologers have 'foreseen' that men are in for hard time this month as the Tamil month of ''Thai'' dawned on an inauspicious day.

Feeling unsettled after this 'prediction', while men were busy paying obsequies to their forefathers in their houses or on the sea shore on the ''Thai Amavasiya'' day today, their women are lighting earthen lamps over raw rice mixed with turmeric poweder spread on a plantain leaf, in front of their houses.

The popular belief is that the lighting of the lamp would remove the ill-effects of ''Thai'' dawning on an inauspicious day, the number of the lamps lit varied according to the number of men in their families.

According to sources in the market, the sale of earthen lamps which was dull after the 'Kaarthigai Deepam'', which follows the festival of lights Diwali, has increased drastically.

UNI