I am now a believer; I mean, I cannot deny what I have seen and touched.

Yesterday afternoon, Uri Geller walked in the shop and started talking about the Uribike (“Bend it, bag it, bike”), grape harvesting in Italy and other activities he is involved in.

Then as he was leaving, almost as an afterthought, he asked his famous question: “Do you have a spoon?”

Now, we are not coffee or tea drinkers at Velorution, so our “kitchen” has no mugs or teaspoons. All we could fish out from Andrea, the mechanic,’s lunch box was a big, solid table spoon, the size of a serving spoon.

When I showed it to Uri, he frowned. I don’t know if he was being theatrical, but this was a challenge.

He took the spoon, placed its neck on the rack of a Kemper Filibus, put three fingers on the neck and fixed the gaze on the sandwiched spoon for about five seconds. Ivan, a customer, and I looked intently.

There was no abrupt or forceful movement. He then raised the spoon and there was now a kink at the neck. He then passed me the spoon. We all continued talking, not really looking at the spoon.

And then the clinching event: the spoon kept on bending in my hand. After three minutes, the neck had a sharp 90 degree bend.

Uri dutifully signed the spoon. As he left, squadrons of police vans turned up and closed the street. Apparently some madman was threatening to jump off the roof (and right on top of Uri’s car). The police did not allow Uri to drive away, but he must have worked his magic again; after a couple of hours the pour soul decided to use the stairs.