Sanjay B Jumaani is the man people turn to when they want to squeeze every little advantage in the universe in their favour — even if it is the form of that tiny bit of interplanetary force or the purported magic that comes in adding numbers in your date of birth or the sequence of letters in your name. An astro numerologist, Jumaani says he is consulted by businesses like Reliance Industries, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Haldiram’s etc. as also celebrities such as the Bachchans, Anil Kumble, Ajay Devgn, and Irrfan (Khan), and even Union cabinet minister Smriti Irani early on in his career. Those are less than 10% of his clientele, though.

Some weeks ago, he posted on Facebook how he had approved Reliance’s choice of the name of its telecom brand Jio and helped chairman Mukesh Ambani and wife Nita Ambani to decide on the launch date of the telecom service that comes at an investment of over $20 billion.

“’Jio’ (4G) launched on their Lucky date by Clients, Ambanis. Name was approved by us, adds to 9. First launched on 27th (9) too. 9, Mars governs 9th, 18th & 27th born as well as Scorpions & Arians . Shri Mukesh (19/4) & Nita Ambani ji (1/11) Arian & Scorpion,” Jumaani posted on his Facebook page on September 2, along with a photo of himself with the Ambanis.

In numerology, you calculate by adding digits of a number to each other, until you reach a single digit figure. Reliance Jio was launched on September 1, while the commercial operations kicked off from September 5, 2016.

FactorDaily caught up with Jumaani over the phone from his Mumbai office to understand the science, if any, behind his craft. Below is the transcript of the interview lightly edited for clarity.

Give us a bit of a background on the science of astrology/numerology and how planet positions, for instance, have a bearing on our lives.

It’s an ancient science, it’s an occult science, wouldn’t exactly use the word science officially, but…. And it has been followed by kings and queens in India since years and the common man as well.

What we are practising is the Chaldean method (based on name and date of birth) of numerology which is a nearly 4,500-5,000 years old practice. It is an offshoot of astrology, wherein we study your name and your date of birth, arrive at certain findings and readings, based on both.

Like your date of birth will reveal the set of numbers or planets that influence or govern you, certain characteristic strength and weakness, based on which we can guide you with regards to career, the line of work, or your important year — whether it is the right time to take a jump. We also throw light on compatibility. We compare two birth dates, if it’s with regards to marriage, or just a general compatibility query, lot of couples come to us also.

Then, through the numbers, through the signatures we can study and predict the pattern of the vibrations of your name.

I am blessed with a good date of birth, 30th August, I share my birthday with Warren Buffett. But then I had to struggle for 17 long years till I had to wait for my name correction, Sanjay Jumani became Sanjay B Jumaani with the ‘B’ in between and the extra ‘a’ in Jumaani.

Abhishek Bachchan is also blessed with a good date of birth, his name vibrations say something else.

Sometimes there is no correction needed like Varun Dhawan or Shah Rukh Khan, some names are readymade like we need not suggest changes. Like Anil Kumble when he had consulted us, we didn’t make any change in his name but we changed his signature and we suggested him (to wear a) diamond, we suggested jersey number 37, post which he did not look back, became the Indian captain, became the captain of Royal Challengers, and now the Indian coach. So it’s not that we always suggest name change.

How do you gauge the vibrations from a signature?

You need to grow in life so your signature should not be stagnant. It should not be coming down. You should ideally sign in an upward direction. If you google, you will see the way Lata Mangeshkar signs, or Amitabh Bachchan signs, or Shah Rukh Khan signs, it goes upwards. Like a plane taking off. So we recommend people to sign up in an upward plane. And recommend them not to cut their name or complicate their signature. Lot of times people complicate their signature so that it can’t be copied.

We suggest that signature should incline upwards, last alphabet should go ahead so it indicates continuity and growth, we suggest people not to put dot after signature. Like Rahul Gandhi if you see his signature, it has a dot, LK Advani is L.K.Advani. Dots are full stops.

Thanks to us there were no dots in the film title PK. It was earlier P.K. but on our recommendation they took off the dots.

Does Corporate India regularly seek your guidance? Any instances you can talk about?

We made “Haldiram” “Haldiram’s” 10 years ago. “Raymond’s” is now “Raymond”, we dropped the ‘s’.

There are many other corporates who take our suggestion like Kotak, they changed their logo and it’s now going in an upward direction.

And the Reliance logo is gold in colour since the past 14-15 months and this year they gave dividend of nearly best out of eight years. Because Ambanis are number 1, and 1 is limited by sun. So, the sun colours meaning gold, yellow, orange, brown… .

In fact, in their Mumbai Indians (the RIL owned IPL team) jersey we had added gold some four years ago and they picked up two trophies after that. Earlier it was only blue.

They consulted when Knight Riders were at the bottom of IPL for four years and changed (their jersey) from black to purple and picked up two trophies soon after that they (Ambanis) got in touch with us.

What are the most common problems corporate India/ individuals come to you with?

In one word, finance. Finance, finance, and finance. Money, money, money, everybody wants money. There are also some people who come for compatibility, marriage, for some sensible people the first question is health and for most people the first question is wealth.

How do you go about helping corporates/ individuals?

We make the judgement… for example for Reliance, we need Mukesh Ambani or Nita Ambani’s date of birth and accordingly we suggest numbers, colours and dates.

For Ajay Devg(a)n we suggested a spelling change, so you have one ‘a’ less in Devgn. And for actor Irrfan, his name has a double r in it now; we asked him to drop Khan.

There are lot of celebrities, corporate houses etc. who consult you. What’s the ratio of individuals seeking your guidance vs. corporate houses/ businesses?

90% are common people and then in those 90% there are some 50% who come for businesses, the others come for finance as well as maybe job-related question and 10% comprise of celebrities and corporate houses.

Is there any kind of tech/ math you use to determine lucky numbers/ letters etc.?

It’s a study. So we already know. We don’t need a map, calculator or compass. I already know which set of numbers are compatible with each other.

You’ve spoken about some of your celebrity clients’ experiences which are in the public domain (Salman Khan, for example). Do they regularly consult you… or only around some important event in their lives?

Once I have told Salman that 3,6, and 9 are good for you, so he releases the film on such dates, he releases the trailers on such date. So he does not necessarily need to keep pestering me or bothering me.

What does one need to do to become a numerologist?

You will need to learn, you will need to practise it also apart from studying some books. You’ll need to practise it on individuals and maybe learn under a qualified person. I was blessed to learn under my father the Late Bansilal M Jumaani. You need to be fortunate to have a guru like him, and you need to first have an inclination or intuition, and believe in yourself.

And he learnt it himself by studying books?

He read over 150 books, I just tried to study him.

How did you get into this and gain so much popularity?

I was actually a disbeliever and used to carry a briefcase to college. I used to attend three jobs and then used to come home by 12 or 1, then again reach college at 7. And I actually used to have holes in my shoes, both my shoes had holes, pebbles and stones used to enter my shoes, those kind of days we have seen. During that time my father tried his hand at various businesses, but was a failure. Later on, he picked up this study and once his three children were married off — he did not want to be branded as an astrologer (before) because he thought “do ladkiyon ki shaadi karwaane mein mushkil ho sakti hai” — he took it up seriously.

In the meantime, I had to carry the responsibility of my family, which was, of course, a pleasure. First year junior college, I started working odd jobs in the sales industry and continued doing so for 17 long years till the time my dad’s hobby cum profession started flourishing a bit. My mom and and wife told me why don’t you ask your father how to spell and sign your name and you’ve been struggling for so long. And before that I used to mock at friends and relatives coming to my dad for advice. I used to tell that that you believe in all these thing in today’s age.

But then when my time came, when numbers had to be aligned. 3, 5, and 6 are my best numbers, and it was 2001 which is 3, I was in my 32nd year which is 5. I got a daughter on 6th January which is 6 and soon it was my 33rd year which is 6. And, at that time all these changes were happening, the spelling and signature change. That’s how I got inclined towards dad’s work and one of my vendor friends told me, “You are good at marketing. Why don’t you market your father? He gives suggestions to Rakesh Roshan, Ekta Kapoor and nobody knows about it.”

My dad told me son I’m not growing any younger so do join me and we’ll make a good team. That’s how I took the risk of leaving my job of 17 years and despite most of the people telling me that don’t leave your secure sales job. Thankfully, I did not listen to them otherwise I would have been in a sales job even now.

How old were you when you started and who was your first client?

I was around 33. I guess it was Smriti Irani or Ronit Roy, one of them.

Are there any tech companies that consult you or seek your services?

Yes, there are lot of tech companies, lot of startups. Just today I was working on one case — Comet and they are supposed to launch the first mobile that can float on water.

Have you ever gone wrong in your calculations?

Yes, of course. It has been embarrassing at times. Like I had predicted a son for Aishwarya (Rai Bachchan), she got a daughter. So we look at such moments and it grounds us, it brings us down, makes us more humble. We always say that we are not playing God, we can go wrong. Only two people can go right all the time one is God the other is fraud, we are neither.

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