KU UG Sem1 Unit-I: An Astologer’s day - R.K.Narayan (Summary)

Kakatiya University- UG English, Semester-I

 

Unit-I: Short story

Summary: An Astologer’s day          - R.K.Narayan

An Astologer’s Day is an interesting, suspense thriller short story written by R.K. Narayan (Rasipuram  Krishnaswami Iyer Narayanswami). It combines suspense, realism and thriller genres. It was originally published in Hindi along with 29 other short stories and was translated into English in 1947. R.K.Narayan (1906-2001) is a well known novelist who published more than 15 novels and 200 short stories. He is famous for creating the fictional world “Malgudi”. He was honoured with Sahitya Academy award in 1958, Padma Vibhushan in 2001.

The Astrologer is the main character in the story. He had left his village without any plan or without telling anyone and had became astrologer. He begins his work every day at noon in a public place under a tamarind tree near Town Hall Park. His professional equipment consists of dozen cowry shells, a square piece of cloth with mystic charts, a note book and a bundle of Palmyra writing. The place is poorly lighted at night. The vendors use hissing gas lights, cycle lights etc. The astrologer has no light of his own. He must depend on the light made from ground nut shells.

The astrologer wears a saffron turban and his forehead was filled with sacred ash and vermilion. His eyes were sparkling with sharp gleam.  He is talkative and a good judge of mankind’s problems. He never opened his mouth till the customer had spoken at least for ten minutes. He could read the people well.

One night, he was challenged by a stranger to prove his mystic powers. After a long discussion, the stranger agrees to pay a rupee. When the stranger strikes a match for his cheroot, the astrologer recognizes him as Guru Nayak, a man he had stabbed and left for dead many years ago. Now, Guru Nayak wants to know the details of the murderer. Initially, the astrologer refused to open his mouth, but after some time he calls Guru Nayak by name. He asserts that the man who stabbed him was crushed under a lorry. The astrologer tells everything about that incident. Guru Nayak was pleased to hear the news and paid the astrologer. Fortunately, Guru Nayak does not recognize the astrologer. Astrologer warns him to go back to his village. To our surprise, the astrologer is actually a man who ran away from his village after believing he has committed a murder. Ironically, the stranger is the man the astrologer believes he has killed.

The astrologer gets home late. He explains everything to his wife and gives money to his wife. He is relieved to know that he was not killed a man. His wife was shocked to hear that his husband had attempted a murder.