Chennai mentalist reveals name of Dhoni’s first crush

Known popularly in Chennai and Bengaluru as ‘The Mind Reader,’ Narpath Raman usually stuns the audience but this time, it was his turn to get amazed. He was invited to perform for an event in Jaipur, by a company whose brand ambassador is MS Dhoni. 

Our hardcore Chennai boy Narpath doesn’t follow the usual formats of cricket but is a fanatic of the IPL because of Chennai Super Kings, thus his craze for Dhoni. 

“I received a call one day asking me to perform in Jaipur, two days prior to the event. I initially didn’t know what it was for or who I would be performing in front of,” says the mentalist. He eventually got a call back stating a few players from CSK would be there and Narpath couldn’t control his excitement. 

He began video calling all his friends to boast of getting to perform in front of the team’s captain. In fact, Narpath got the usually reserved and private Dhoni to reveal something no one knew about him until then! “I asked him to recollect who his first crush was. I started reading his mind and writing the letters down on a piece of paper. 

After I felt like I had got it right, I showed it to him and he confirmed it. Her name is Swati, and the last time Dhoni said he saw her was in Class 12,” grins Narpath. 

He recalls another memorable incident from the show— “Prior to the event, I’d given the client a video that I’d shot of myself saying I would ask four people, two players and two members of the audience, to draw something and write down a simple word. I predicted in the video that someone would draw Dhoni’s yellow jersey with the number seven printed on it, and the word they would write would be ‘speed,’” he shares. 

And much to the shock of everyone, on the day of the event after the four people submitted the drawings, Suresh Raina was asked to pick one up at random and guess what it happened to be? Back home from the fanfare at the event, we ask him what he plans to do after the euphoria dies down. 

“I’m mostly into performing at corporate events so I guess I’ll go back to doing that,” Narpath replies. 

On why he doesn’t do many public stage shows, “I feel that audiences in Chennai don’t get me; many videos that I shoot involving the public in mind-reading go viral on social media sites, but I’m not confident a stage show here will be a hit, though I’d love to do it someday.”