The Price Of A Trick

They say that a magician never shares his secrets, but that is not the case with mentalist Narpath Raman, who has been taking online classes to teach the art of mentalism

- Mayukh Majumdar

Inspired by the works of illusionists Derren Brown and David Blaine, management consultant Narpath Raman quit his job at the young age of 23, to become a street performer. While corporate shows brought him acclaim as a mentalist, what truly brought the spotlight on him was when he managed to get former Indian cricket team skipper, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, to reveal his first crush, at an event in Jaipur in 2018, the video of which can be found on Raman's channel. But Raman is no psychic and he believes, much to the dismay of the global mentalist community, that nobody — absolutely nobody — can read minds. It's not a superpower, but a skill, honed through years of practice.

Following the national lockdown, Raman decided to share his secrets via online classes, on a whim. It was the fear of losing the craft that drove me to start these classes. I decided to put out a message on social media. I got a lot of responses. In fact, the first batch has just graduated, after a 21-day course, he says.