Grinding out the future
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| Coffee-reader Deniz Genez Aydin helps a Chinese woman to think about her trip abroad at the Turkey Pavilion at the Shanghai Expo. |
"The memories of a cup of coffee are good for 40 years." This Turkish saying refers to the practice of reading coffee cups to predict a person's future.
"Coffee fortune-telling is a type of psychological therapy to assist people to make decisions and help them see opportunities which they might otherwise ignore. I pick up the sign for you and you have to open your mind and think about it yourself," says 45-year-old coffee-reader Deniz Genez Aydin.
Aydin began fortunetelling when she was 15 and she is now the latest attraction at the caf in the Turkey Pavilion at the Shanghai Expo.
"My father used to make predictions for our family members with coffee grinds and he taught me how to be a fortuneteller," Aydin says.
Turkish fortunetelling is totally different from the traditional Chinese way, which requires the date of birth and the eight characters of a horoscope. For a coffee-reading you put the saucer on top of the coffee cup after you have finished, shake the cup slightly and turn it. The fortuneteller then reads the designs made by the fine grains of coffee sediment.
The coffee method of fortunetelling has become so popular at the pavilion that visitors who want to learn their future now have to wait in line to make an appointment with Aydin.
Most of her customers are young girls curious about their future, or those who are unable to make an important decision, Aydin says.
"Many young students ask me to tell them whether it will be a good idea to study abroad," she says.
During the process of coffee fortune-telling, Aydin always makes casual conversation with visitors while they take sips of Turkish coffee. After they finish drinking the coffee, she will hold their hands to turn the cup counter-clockwise a few times at chest level.
At the moment, Aydin lives in Shanghai and contributes most of her time at the Expo along with her husband, Alptekin Aydin, who is vice-director of the Izmir Case Pavilion, where their 9-year-old son Mustafa Efe Aydin works as a part-time volunteer.
"We started living in China six years ago in Beijing and moved to Shanghai last year for the Expo. We will move back to Turkey to continue our consulting business in two years after my son finishes primary school," Aydin says.
She adds that nobody can know the exact future as paths can be changed if you make unexpected decisions.
"It is totally up to us, depending on our decisions," Aydin says.
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