COMMENTARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
ARCHIVES

Boy says he is born again bureaucrat

Sounds slightly weird, but it may every bit be true.

Four-year-old Vishwanath, son of a bank employee in West Bengal, has a unique talent: he can 'remember' details of his 'other' life.

Born on October 2, 1994, Vishwanath surprised his parents by speaking when he was just nine months old. The first words that came out were "Punjab" and "Suraj."

Then came the stunner: the wonder kid claimed he had been the district collector in Punjab in his earlier incarnation. And he had two wives -- Suraj and Supala -- and three children.

Vishwanath further claimed he had worked in Mysore, Bangalore and Calcutta, and owned a luxurious bunglow in Mysore. His telephone number, the four-year-old claimed, was 2212!

When the boy walked in the middle of the road, his father asked him not to. But Vishwanath's reply was that he had a right to do so -- wasn't he, after all, the district collector?

The boy's parents have consulted psychiartists, but all the consolation they got was that there have been reports of incarnation... Vishwanath's father is now planning to contact the Punjab authourities to verify the names and details his son has given.

UNI