<p>Krishna Pandey, a welder from Dhading district, sought the help of the media in Kathmandu Sunday to draw attention to what he claims is his psychic power that enables him to get random previews of disasters taking place worldwide.<br /><br />The son of a poor farmer, Krishna says he began to "see" incidents of devastation 10 years ago, starting with the massacre of Nepal's royal family June 1, 2001.<br /><br />"I heard gunshots in my mind one day," Pandey said. "I heard the gunfire coming from the palace and I told people it was a bad omen. The royal family should be shifted from the palace. But no one listened to me."<br /><br />Pandey says though he tries to alert the authorities when he has his visions, no one takes him seriously because he has no money or contacts.<br /><br />"I don't even watch TV or read papers regularly," he says. "I can't afford to. I have just a tiny radio I bought while working in Oman and that's my sole link to the world."<br />In 2008, when Nepal held a historic election that saw its Maoist guerrillas emerge as winners, Pandey says he predicted the election results to one of the then election commissioners in Dhading.<br /><br />Last month, he was attending a media programme in Kathmandu when he had a vision.<br />"I saw a man digging a hole in a place full of garbage near the gate of a building, and minutes later, I heard a big bang," he says. "Later, when I saw photos in newspapers, I realised that I had had a vision of the explosion in front of the New Delhi high court gate."<br /><br />His over 250 other predictions, Pandey says, are about the 9/11 attack in the US, the tsunami in Japan, aircraft disasters in Nepal and the terror attacks in the UK.<br />He also claims to have seen in his dreams that the group sentenced to death for the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi would get a reprieve and Sonia Gandhi going abroad for medical treatment.<br /><br />However, the visions, instead of getting him fame and riches, have had him branded as a "crackpot" by the people he tries to convince.<br /><br />He was once arrested in Dhading when he tried to get the ear of the chief district officer and had to cool his heels for a night in the local lock-up.<br /><br />For now, Pandey has a prediction for the new government of Nepal.He says he dreamt that Baburam Bhattarai, the new prime minister, would initiate sweeping changes after returning to Kathmandu from attending the 66th UN General Assembly meet in New York in end-September.<br /><br />While the Bhattarai government would not fall soon, the psychic however warns that the new premier would not be able to deliver a new constitution by November-end; nor would he be able to rehabilitate the Maoist guerrilla army with its nearly 20,000 fighters within that time.</p>
<p>Krishna Pandey, a welder from Dhading district, sought the help of the media in Kathmandu Sunday to draw attention to what he claims is his psychic power that enables him to get random previews of disasters taking place worldwide.<br /><br />The son of a poor farmer, Krishna says he began to "see" incidents of devastation 10 years ago, starting with the massacre of Nepal's royal family June 1, 2001.<br /><br />"I heard gunshots in my mind one day," Pandey said. "I heard the gunfire coming from the palace and I told people it was a bad omen. The royal family should be shifted from the palace. But no one listened to me."<br /><br />Pandey says though he tries to alert the authorities when he has his visions, no one takes him seriously because he has no money or contacts.<br /><br />"I don't even watch TV or read papers regularly," he says. "I can't afford to. I have just a tiny radio I bought while working in Oman and that's my sole link to the world."<br />In 2008, when Nepal held a historic election that saw its Maoist guerrillas emerge as winners, Pandey says he predicted the election results to one of the then election commissioners in Dhading.<br /><br />Last month, he was attending a media programme in Kathmandu when he had a vision.<br />"I saw a man digging a hole in a place full of garbage near the gate of a building, and minutes later, I heard a big bang," he says. "Later, when I saw photos in newspapers, I realised that I had had a vision of the explosion in front of the New Delhi high court gate."<br /><br />His over 250 other predictions, Pandey says, are about the 9/11 attack in the US, the tsunami in Japan, aircraft disasters in Nepal and the terror attacks in the UK.<br />He also claims to have seen in his dreams that the group sentenced to death for the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi would get a reprieve and Sonia Gandhi going abroad for medical treatment.<br /><br />However, the visions, instead of getting him fame and riches, have had him branded as a "crackpot" by the people he tries to convince.<br /><br />He was once arrested in Dhading when he tried to get the ear of the chief district officer and had to cool his heels for a night in the local lock-up.<br /><br />For now, Pandey has a prediction for the new government of Nepal.He says he dreamt that Baburam Bhattarai, the new prime minister, would initiate sweeping changes after returning to Kathmandu from attending the 66th UN General Assembly meet in New York in end-September.<br /><br />While the Bhattarai government would not fall soon, the psychic however warns that the new premier would not be able to deliver a new constitution by November-end; nor would he be able to rehabilitate the Maoist guerrilla army with its nearly 20,000 fighters within that time.</p>