Let's call it a metaphysical convergence of sorts. The principles of Vastu Shastra, it seems, work just as well in cyberia as it does on Mother Earth. When Smita Jain Narang, an architect, released her book WebVastu on May 23, she wasn't quite prepared for the phenomenal response it is receiving-leading science magazines like Brazil's Galileu and Germany's Maxschoenherr want her opinion on their sites and have sought interviews with her. And she has had to courier copies of her books to readers in the US, the UK, the Netherlands and Brazil.

Narang's claim to fame: her application of the principles of Vastu Shastra to web design apparently results in improved traffic flow to the sites. According to Narang, almost 70 per cent of her vastu-based prescriptions on 500 Indiamart sites have worked. "She had classified these websites as 'vastu compliant' and 'vastu non-compliant' and then matched their performance levels. About 70 per cent of the websites performed as expected i.e., well if they were vastu-compliant and badly if they were non-compliant. More objective research on the subject is required, though, before we can arrive at any conclusions," says Amit Gundh, Internet Manager, Indiamart, India's largest B2B site.

And how does it work? "Just as the world is made up of five basic elements which need to be in harmony, every website also has five elements which need to be in equilibrium. Earth stands for layout, fire for colour, air for the html, space for the name of the website (URL), and water for the fonts and graphics," says Narang.

"Colours can be used in three different ways. One can either choose colours according to the zodiac sign, or use colours that are consistent with the governing planets. If one goes by the governing planet system, colours like white or grey are best suited for the background of news sites; red is a strict no-no for these though it can be used for images, fonts and graphics. Page proportion is another important aspect. The length-to-width ratio, she says, should not be more than 1:2.

Narang has also prescribed several suggestions to improve the balance of the Indiamart.com site to ensure more business. "The space element should be changed in some places like in the logo; "10" is hollow; it should be made solid," she says. "We will not be able to make any changes in the main website, but will incorporate the suggestions in case we start another website," says Gundh.

But not everyone is buying into web vastu. "Traffic on a website is driven not by design and layout, but by content that is user-friendly and updated regularly. Where does vastu figure here? Next, people will start applying vastu principles to fashion designing," exclaims a clearly upset A.R. Hari, a Bangalore-based vastu expert.

When analysing Webchutney.com, Narang found the fire element to be fine but felt that greater use of green would boost the website's business. The company, though, is less than impressed. "We focus on the principle of usability and not on gimmickry," says Webchutney.com CEO Siddharth Rao.

But there are still some who want to try it out. "I would love to work with a vastu expert and see how it works. Vastu is about harmonising elements, so I don't think it can hurt a site in any way," says Mumbai-based website designer Rajeev Malhotra.

There are people, however, who say web vastu is nothing new. Vastuworld.com, a 10-year-old company, claims to provide these services globally. "We have been dabbling in internet vastu since 1998," says Mayank K. Barjatya, vastu architect at Vastuworld.com. "I don't agree with Narang's 5-element system. It's illogical," he says.

Does web vastu really work? Or is it just another passing fad? It's still too early to say, but in the fast changing, chaotic worldwide web, it is clearly another trend that's gaining ground-at least for now.