Stay glued to the telly this November! Six shows ready for launch...and many more on the cards. But this is not a mere coincidence....We, at Telly Chakkar decided to probe further!

Six shows are ready for launch on 14 November -- Star One's India Calling and Darna Mana Hai, SaharaOne's Kituu Sabb Jaantii Hai, Zee Cafe's Bombay Talking, MTV's Pyar Vyar and all that and Pogo will begin the rerun of old favourite R K Narayan’s Malgudi Days on that day.

Other than these, there are shows like Sony's Indian Idol II, Ek Ladki Anjani Si, Deal Ya No Deal and Dulhan, NGC's Mission Udaan, Zee's Hum Paanch and Sab's Lo Kal Lo Baat (to name a few) that are coming in the course of the month.

"November is an auspicious month. It's the scorpion period ruled by Mars, which is the most energetic planet...that is why you have people like Bill Gates, Indira Gandhi and Shahrukh Khan born in this month. This is a month that's good for the media and communication industry," says numerologist and entertainment industry fortune teller, Sanjay B Jumaani.

There is another reason why November appeals as a month for channels to go into a programme launch overdrive. During Diwali the advertisement budgets are high but viewership is low, but right after that, there is a scope of big launches due to huge funds that are released after the festival month. After November, channels have to wait till July (Kyunki...was launched in July 2000) for launches (keeping the ad budgets in mind).

This is not a phenomena that is particular to the year 2005; Last November, Star One was launched and so were shows like Astitva in November 2002 on Zee TV.

But what's so special about this November, is the fact that so many shows are being launched on a particular day -- 14 November! Sanjay has an answer to that as well!

"14 is a good day. It's ruled by Mercury, which is the fastest planet and good for media ventures. This time it is a double Mercury, (for the date, month and year all add up to 5 and the digits 1 and 4 add up to 5 as well) since the number 5 is the number of communication and media. I have advised many channels that they should look at the numbers 1, 3, 5 and 6 as their launch dates," says Sanjay, who has added that extra 'n' to shows like Sinndoor..., and an 's' to logos of channels like SaharaOne.

There are as many as three news channels that are ready for launch this month -- Times Now (9 November), The Adhikari Brothers' Janmat (First week of the month), and Rajdeep Sardesai's, IBN (19 November).

Star World too has a galaxy of shows lined up for the month -- Bex (5 November) Life as We Know It
(6 November) Kevin Hill (November 29)The King of Queens (7 November) and Enterprise (29 November).

So hold your breath for this November which brings you the most sumptuous programming spread ever!