Tucked away in a corner of The Forum - a mall in the Clifton area of Karachi, an elderly man can be found perched upon a plastic chair, with a plastic table and three other chairs around him. The smell of coffee wafts through the air. A sign that reads, ‘Rs 600’ sits upon the table in front of him. Given the current situation, a sanitiser is also placed on this table. In his hands, a large, purple deck of cards can be seen being shuffled around. As one gets closer, perhaps brimming with both curiosity, apprehension, and skepticism, Khalid Syed flashes the most inviting smile, and one’s immediate guardedness fades away. Almost always dressed in Bohemian attire, with a mane of salt-and-pepper hair tied back in a ponytail, Syed greets customers in a Goan-Christian-sounding accent, with impeccable English.
Perhaps, it is a testament to him being an excellent salesman who knows how to put his customers at ease, for, indeed, before Khalid Syed became a tarot card reader, he spent some time as a salesman at one of the shops at The Forum. Or, perhaps, it is who he is - a kind stranger with beaming eyes that shine with a prominence that fades away the lines on the face of this man who is easily in his seventies.
The bottom line is - and believe you me, there is no way around it - Khalid Syed is conventionally cool.
Friday is perhaps the dodgiest time to set up a meeting. He is either busy in prayer, or there is a line of customers impatiently asking one question after the other. On other days, it is a coin toss. He either has someone occupying the chairs placed around him, or he’s wistfully looking into the distance, with his hands on his cards, as he waits with unparalleled patience.
When one sits down next to him, he does not seem to be in a hurry to ask for money. In fact, he does not bring it up at all during the course of any reading or conversation. He asks you your name, either guesses your star sign or simply asks you for that as well, and strikes up a conversation as if you have known each other your whole lives.
The obvious, and perhaps more naive question to ask is always the same: how did you get into tarot card reading? When one poses this question, one expects a mystical answer. Indeed, when questioning Saira Khan, another tarot card reader with whom I have had the pleasure to collaborate, the answer had a spiritual tinge, where she talked about developing interest from an early age.
“Everything in the universe has consciousness,” Khan states, “and with that, it has an effect. While we haven’t fully understood the occult sciences, and it’s not very common knowledge, our reservations stem from how we should not explore what we do not understand. However, historically, this has always existed.”
Syed does not offer any such answer.
“I got into tarot cards because I wanted to impress girls,” he says with an infectious laugh. At the age of sixteen, motivated by an interest in the opposite sex, Syed got his hands on a deck and began practicing, learning from a friend who happened to practice and garner a fair share of attention.
“The cards stayed,” he says jokingly, “but the girls never came.”
Before diving into the reading, and before the chat with Syed himself, a bit of an explanation is warranted in order to understand what tarot truly entails.
Tarot itself refers to a deck of playing cards. The concept stems from Trionfi which were Italian playing cards that date all the way back to the 15th century. Interestingly, however, this concept was an import from Mamluk Egypt. These cards, though, were not merely that, for they contained allegorical meanings. Initially, the cards served a recreational purpose. However, by the 18th century, the images associated with them began being used for divination purposes. Therefore, custom decks started being made.
The most popular deck to date, which is used as the basis for understanding tarot, is the Rider-Waite tarot deck that was published in 1909, illustrated by British artist, writer, and occultist Pamela Colman Smith, under the watchful, guiding eye of British poet and mystic A.E. Waite. Since it was published by the Rider Company, that name was incorporated in the title for the deck.
In modern discourse, the erasure of the female illustrator’s name, in place of two largely masculine entities, is a heated debate.
The deck consists of 78 cards, consisting of 22 Major Arcana cards - or the cards that hold greater secrets - that do not belong to any suit, all of which are numbered, and 56 Minor Arcana cards that hold lesser secrets, that belong to one of four suits with 14 cards each. The suits today are known as swords, wands, pentacles, and cups. Previously, these were referred to as swords, batons, coins, and cups respectively.
Syed does not use the typical Rider-Waite deck. Even though most of the illustrations borrow thoroughly from the deck itself, the aesthetics of his deck are different.
“I began practicing with a deck that didn’t even have these images,” Syed states. Indeed, many turn to a deck of playing cards, that we use recreationally, for cartomancy, where each suit and number hold a particular meaning.
As the time-unbound reading proceeds, Syed opens up about his life, as he has done on more than one occasion. Syed also suffers from Alzheimer’s and does not tend to remember recent clients or the conversations he has had with them anymore. However, he remembers his youth and talks fondly about it.
An artist and musician back in the day, Syed traveled quite a bit with his band called ‘Soso Saaz,’ or SOS, as it was also referred to. While he originally wanted to be the drummer for the band, he ended up being the bassist. In 1968, in collaboration with EMI Records, the band even released an album. While the album was not a commercial hit, Syed has no regrets.
“It was never going to sell,” he says, laughing it off jovially. “It was a Western band with Eastern instruments.”
Perhaps, handing Syed a bass guitar in today’s world of fusion-inspired music would yield different results.
Some time amongst all this, where he was learning cards and playing music, Syed was also traveling all over the world in the 1970s, educating himself in various ways, having left school at an early age. He lived through the era of Islamization and holds an unmistakable grudge against Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and General Zia-ul-Haq. Amongst all that too, if it were not a compelling enough backstory as is, Syed was also a farmer in Sakro. In fact, it was misfortune striking with his crops due to flooding that led him to this almost forgotten corner at The Forum.
“The job pays,” Syed states with a shrug. “I’m a flood victim. I need the money.” He waves off all efforts of relief from the government, stating that it “disappeared midway.”
Given that Syed sits here throughout the week, even during the uncertainty of the pandemic, one must wonder if the job sustains. With all businesses impacted, one worries if Syed can, in fact, make ends meet.
Interestingly, when I met Syed for the first time, he charged Rs 500 for his readings - still unbound by time, and filled with anecdotes. It is only recently that he hiked his fee by a mere Rs 100.
“If the customers are regular and the flow of people is decent, I can make up to Rs 30,000 in a month. If not, it caps off at Rs 6000, if that.”
One wonders why he chooses to stay at a job that barely makes ends meet, and Syed has an answer for that as well. He wants to be his own boss, with no one micromanaging him, and where he can make conversation with his customers - perhaps even lend them an ear, for usually those who are troubled seek out guidance through his readings.
Syed misses his core customers that would visit in his earlier days. Calling them the “cream of the crop,” Syed states that his loyal customers have all moved abroad, and readings just aren’t the same anymore.
As he proceeds with the reading between anecdotes and frequent remarks based on zodiac signs, one notices an almost structured approach in his process. There is less interpretation, and more expression based on the memory of what those cards entail. Therefore, the question must be prompted - does Syed, himself, believe in tarot cards and readings?
“I believe in logic,” he says with a wink.
Many tarot card readers argue that, perhaps, a logical, scientific approach can be applied to readings as well, with the utilization of the concept of energies. Others, who lean on spirituality heavily, talk of intuition, and connecting with otherworldly guides to provide a message. In fact, the rejection of tarot card readers and the guidance they provide is what makes it a globally counter cultural aspect. When it comes to Pakistan, however, the conversation has an added layer of religiosity.
While Syed does not dive into the religious aspect of things, having worked in Karachi as a tarot card reader for years on end, and being one of the few who are better known, at least for in-person readings, he does agree that it is, in fact, a countercultural activity.
When asked about whether he would consider moving to a digital medium, Syed rejects the idea, not because he is afraid to expand his territory into a digital space, but because he thinks he needs the person getting the reading done in front of him. Perhaps it provides context. Perhaps it makes the process more human. He does not elaborate. However, he remains insistent on the activity retaining its human touch.
As the reading and conversation draw to a close, Syed invitingly sets up a second meeting, stating that setting up a reading is not necessary - a kind conversation with careless abandon will do as well. Placing the fee silently next to his cards, one leaves, feeling a magnetic pull towards this eccentric, extraordinary man, who is filled with stories, intrigue, and an ascetic mysticism that perhaps he himself does not see, or if he does, he does not openly acknowledge, understanding fully well that the first visit will not be the last.