Delhi’s only foot reader Preeti Chadha tells SHALINI SAKSENA how pampering your feet can stoke your luck

You need to take care of your health or a few years down the line you will face major health issues.

You are not very good at relationships.

You are a pessimist.

You think too much; this could stem from the fact that things have never gone the way you have wanted them to pan out.

You have good communication skills.

You have a bad temper.

The list of traits and character analysis continues. Nothing new here given that India is full of people who claim to have the ability to read the palm, face read and give Tarot reading to predict the future. But to read your life’s past, present and future by just looking at your feet is something that is unheard off. Yet, one lady in the Capital is doing just this. Meet 45-year-old Preeti Chadha.

Her insights are based on scanning soles to make informed recommendations on appropriate and necessary action. She tells you that the characteristics of our sole are as unique as our fingerprints. “The size, shape, proportion of the toes, texture, colour, lines and wounds, reveal a lot about any person’s character and choices made in life. The feet serve as an indicator of our health, physical and mental well-being,” Chadha says and narrates a story.

Ancient Egyptians would go to war only after the Pharaoh’s feet would be read. In the Indian context, when Raja Janak was out in the fields and came across Sita with her feet sticking out from the mud, he called his foot reader to predict her future. The reader, by just looking at the feet, said that she would marry Lord Rama, the King of Ayodhya and that she was no ordinary lady. Years later, when Ravan abducted Sita and told her that Ram had been killed in the battle and that it was time for her to marry him, she refused on the grounds that this was impossible — the prediction was that she would marry Ram, the King of Ayodhya and he was not king yet.

“That is how precise feet reading can be and is,” Chadha says who has been reading people’s feet since she was a child.

She tells you that there is a reason why traditionally people would wash their feet and leave their shoes outside the house. There is a reason why the bride is asked to step in kumkum water just before she walks into her new home. This was a way to check whether she would bring in luck. There is a reason why we meet someone we always give a reading from head to foot. There is a reason why one must cut toenails and yet keep one’s feet beautiful.

Unlike other kids who would be excited to look at the world around them, Chadha was more fascinated with looking at people’s feet. “My father would reprimand me to look up and walk but I never did listen to him. I would be busy looking at feet and the more I looked at them and studied them, the more knowledge I gained. When I was 21, I could make calculated predictions that would prove to be correct. Then came a time when I was seriously ill because I failed to protect myself against a powerful negative energy. I  never realised that when I was giving readings I would be opening myself to imbibing them. But I did just that. I paid a heavy price. I was serious for six-months. That is when I decided that I had to protect myself. I wear crystals and do a lot of meditation. This helps,” she says.

But it is not as if anyone can walk into her home for a reading. One has to make an appointment, she can be contacted via Facebook. She also holds workshops where people from all walks of life go for smaller sessions — 20 minutes each. Her rule is that the person must wash their feet properly, apply a moisturiser and wear socks so that there is no contact with leather.

“My ability is also due to Ma Kali, it is God’s gift to me. With the flow of energy that I feel come the predictions. This means that when I give people a reading and hold their feet in my hands, the healing from my side begins. Maybe I can stop the flow of this healing but I don’t want to.  Like I said, it is God’s gift. Sometimes I wonder why I was chosen  — maybe because I am seeking moksha and this the path that God has chosen for me follow to attain it,” Chadha says.

To begin with, it was difficult for her to switch off and there were times when she would not be able to stop herself from approaching total strangers and tell them what their feet were saying. It was her husband who told her that this must stop. “That it was not in the interest of the other person. This was not so easy to do since there were times when she couldn’t stop herself. But with practice I can now totally switch off,” Chadha says who adds that there a science to what she does.

Just like palmists look at the lines in a person’s hand and astrologers read stars to predict the future, feet too have lines which Chadha can read. There is a reason why the younger one’s touch the feet of the leaders or the guru or for that matter God. If feet were not that important why would we touch them? “The 10 toes have a different meaning. Earth, water, fire, air, and space; the thumb represents the Sun and then all the navgrahs are on the feet. All the mounds, shapes, fingers, whorls, colours have a meaning,” Chadha says who gives at least four reading a day.

She also advises her clients on how to get a pedicure done. “Have you ever paid attention to a Goddesses’ feet? There will be aalta, she will be wearing anklet and bichheyas. But the nails will always be trimmed. A cracked, patchy foot where the nail has grown beyond the tendon will never attract luck. Pamper your feet and pamper your luck is my mantra to people who come to for a reading,” Chadha says.