Your Life in a Cup of Coffee
The Documentary Podcast
BBC
4.3 • 2.6K Ratings
🗓️ 24 December 2017
⏱️ 27 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
An exploration of the mysterious, fragrant world of fortune-telling with Turkish coffee grounds, a practice popular across the Middle East. The BBC's Nooshin Khavarzamin discovers the history, culture, Sufism and the mystic world of coffee fortune tellers.
As a young, stylish, modern and educated woman, Sengel might not fit the stereotypical image of a fortune teller but her accurate readings have made her one of the most famous coffee fortune tellers in Istanbul. Her clients include politicians and world-renowned celebrities. How does she do it?
In a backroom of a local public baths, we meet a handful of women who are using their break time to drink Turkish coffee and read each other’s fortunes. This is where we learn that coffee cup reading is not exclusive to people with special powers, but is in fact a pivotal point to gatherings amongst almost all Turkish women - although there are some heated debates about the Islamic morals of this kind of 'superstition'.
Meanwhile, Sufi master Musa Dede explains where the first coffee drinkers came from and how coffee cup reading came into existence.
Produced by Sahar Zand for BBC World Service.
Image: A coffee cup and saucer with coffee grounds, Credit: Getty Images
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | From the BBC World Service, welcome to the latest edition of the documentary podcast. |
| 0:06.0 | Every week we bring you a range of stories from our presenters and reporters across the world. |
| 0:11.0 | Please do rate the documentary on your podcast app and leave a comment. Let us know what you think. |
| 0:17.0 | I'm Nushinhavar Zamin, on the BBC World Service. |
| 0:22.0 | In a car driving through one of the most affluent parts of Istanbul |
| 0:26.7 | and with a rather special woman. She's been paid a lot of money to show up to a glamorous |
| 0:32.4 | party. |
| 0:34.0 | I'm not sure either I am cursed or I am a chosen one. |
| 0:40.0 | It's like there is this third day and I can look it into your brain and I can see the words in your brain. |
| 0:46.0 | I could become you and I could leave your life for a minute. |
| 0:51.4 | Okay, we are here. |
| 0:52.3 | After parking next to a number of sport cars, a silent butler directs us through a flamboyance |
| 0:59.6 | set of golden gates and into the house. |
| 1:07.0 | Hi, I'm a shame. She told me some stuff that even my best friends didn't know, |
| 1:10.0 | and I didn't know at the time. |
| 1:12.0 | She's like, this is going to happen this is |
| 1:14.0 | gonna happen I'm get lost this this can't be true no no and then I call her like a |
| 1:19.2 | few weeks later what you said happened. A mystical ritual that expands far beyond Turkey, |
| 1:30.0 | one that had an overwhelming effect on me. |
| 1:35.0 | I feel so good about this. |
| 1:38.0 | After all, the things should go through, |
| 1:42.8 | she's going to be fine. |
... |
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