Paul the soothsayer

It's due to his three octopus hearts.

If only Paul were Indian. At least we’d have some real connection to the football World Cup. We could claim the psychic powers of the cephalopod were due to having swum and lived in parts of our ancient land where the power of prophecy is more common than the habit of analysis.

The octopus that, barring one wrong prediction during Euro 2008, has unerringly been picking the winners at the World Cup, holds some form of dual citizenship. Indeed, never before has an octopus’ country of origin and current residence been the centre of such attention.

Born in Weymouth, England, and currently residing in an aquarium in Oberhausen, Germany, Paul has been signalling the winner of upcoming matches by dipping first into the box with the winner’s flag of two boxes of mussels planted with the respective flags of the clashing teams.

To the consternation of his hosts, Paul picked Spain over Germany to advance to the final of the tournament. There were, predictably, doubts about his intentions and possible biases given his land of birth.

Such is the jitteriness felt by fans before every big match that a tentacled creature caused acute apprehensions even about a team that has performed, in one word, superbly. And then Paul also did correctly choose Germany over England before their key match.
    
By the time these words are being read, it’ll be known if Paul got it right. If he did, well, perhaps consideration is due. The laws of probability have to run their course sometime. If he hasn’t got it right, we can go back to looking at him as a sea-critter with three hearts.

Which fact, of course, can help both ways. It could have been the large-/many-heartedness that made him choose the winners. And when he got it wrong, it’d be because his hearts lay in different places. Here in India, of course, one awaits the astrologer who, after all is over, will claim he had predicted it all last year. At least Paul can’t speak.