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An Astrologer's Day - Enotes
An Astrologer's Day - Enotes
The astrologer worked in an area that had poor lighting. At night, he used the light of the neighboring
vendors who sold nuts, fruits, and ice cream to name a few things being sold. He did what had he had to
do to earn a living.
When a client would sit down, he would allow the client to talk for ten minutes. By this time, the
astrologer had enough information to go on. He was a good judge of character. He could read people
very well. His job was one of guess work for "he knew no more of what was going to happen to others
than he knew what was going to happen to himself the next minute."
The astrologer was shrewd. He understood the problems of life. He understood financial woes and
marriage problems. He would guess his way through an encounter with a client.
No doubt, the astrologer knew what to say after he listened to a client for ten minutes. He understood
life's problems and he could guess what was wrong after hearing his client pour his or her heart out.
As evening approached, the astrologer saw a man passing by and assumed he would be a potential
client. This client was Guru Nayak and he would not be played with. He tried to get away from the
astrologer, having little faith in his abilities. Guru Nayak lit a cheroot and the astrologer recognized him
as a man he had stabbed and left for dead many years ago. Nervously, the astrologer tried to back out
the deal the two had made. But Guru Nayak would not hear of it. He insisted that the astrologer would
tell him if the man he searched for was alive or dead. Guru Nayak wanted to know where the man was
who had stabbed him and left him for dead years ago.
Finally, the astrologer tells Guru Nayak what he wants to hear. He claims the man who stabbed him is
dead. The astrologer knows what to say since he was the man who had stabbed him years ago.
Fortunately, Guru Nayak does not recognize the astrologer. He satisfies Guru Nayak and makes extra
money off him.
In "An Astrologer's Day," why
does the astrologer give the
stranger this particular advice
about the stranger's past?
After recognizing the stranger as a man whom he tried to murder
years earlier, the astrologer advises, instructs his unknowing victim
to do this for one main reason: self-protection.
He wants to keep the man away in order to remain safe from
retaliation. His speech to the stranger involves two strategies:
establishing false authority and satisfying the customer’s rage and
need for vengeance. First, before delivering the advice above, the
charlatan astrologer uses prior knowledge to fool the customer into
believing his authenticity as a psychic. Pretending to demonstrate
supernatural powers, he feigns divining the man’s past—being
stabbed in the chest, pushed into a well in a field, and left to die.
The man is amazed that the astrologer knows this information,
unaware that the astrologer is actually the perpetrator of these
homicidal deeds. Further strengthening his facade as a trustworthy
clairvoyant, the protagonist addresses the stranger by name. This
false display of magical power misleads the stranger into taking the
fake astrologer's words seriously. The hapless customer listens
intently to and heeds the command to take the two-day train
journey back home up north and never return. The protagonist then
tries to scare the man by professing that he can avoid danger if he
stays home.
Conveniently, this warning ensures that the man will never return,
securing the protagonist’s safety. This action and a promise of long
life not only portray him as a mystical figure but also make the
stranger feel a bit of control over his own fate. The astrologer
supposedly sees into the future that the man will live to be one
hundred years old if he follows directions. Second, the protagonist
placates the stranger’s anger and desire for vengeance by telling
him that his attempted murderer is This statement provides double
insurance that the attempted murderer is dead and thus out of the
stranger’s reach and that the stranger can look forward to enacting
vengeance in the afterlife (“the next world”). The protagonist
confirms that the stranger has been looking for him “now and then”
in order to kill him. By lying that he—the attempted murderer—is
dead, the astrologer stops the stranger from stalking him in the
future. When the disappointed stranger remarks that his attempted
murderer hopefully “died as he deserved,” the astrologer again lies:
The astrologer embellishes his deceptive narrative in order to satisfy
the stranger and send him away appeased and certain never to
return.
The best expression of the moral of the story may be the principle expressed by Laurence Sterne, author
of the classic novel:
In the story "An Astrologer's Day," the protagonist's nemesis Guru Nayak is not relying on his "own wit."
He is going from one astrologer to another, believing one of them will be able to answer his question,
"Where can he find the man who tried to kill him in his village years ago?" Guru Nayak's quest is futile.
How could anyone read the answer to that question in the stars? One after another, the astrologers
send him on wild goose chases until, just by accident, Guru Nayak runs into the very man he has been
looking for, although he doesn't recognize him.
The astrologer is versatile and adaptable. He has had to learn by experience. That is perhaps the main
advantage of relying on your own perception, intuition, experience, and "street smarts."
What was the equipment that
the astrologer carried?
The astrologer's "professional equipment" is itemized in the first sentence of the story. ...he opened his
bag and spread out his professional equipment, which consisted of a dozen cowrie shells, a square piece
of cloth with obscure mystic charts on it, a notebook, and a bundle of palmyra writing.
Cowrie shells are large sea-snail shells. Some of them are very pretty. Palmyra writing is mystical writing
on the leaves of the Palmyra palm tree. No doubt the writing is only an imitation of sacred Palmyra
writing. The astrologer may not even be able to read in any language. All of these items of professional
equipment are obviously intended just for show. They give the astrologer an appearance of having
esoteric knowledge. The astrologer goes further: he paints his forehead with ash and vermillion and
wears a turban.
Guru Nayak, the astrologer's nemesis, is not taken in by the specious paraphernalia. He has been
searching for the astrologer for a long time and has evidently consulted astrologers before. He is not
impressed by the usual platitudes of these fortune tellers. But he is totally astonished when this
astrologer knows his name and the details of his near-death experience in his home village.
The fact that the astrologer recognizes his past victim gives him the
chance to save himself from any possible future persecution. He, in
the role of astrologer, is very convincing: he provides his client
exact details of his attack and tells him that the perpetrator has
been killed by a lorry. In the end, it is the coming together of both
fate and chance that resolves the issues that both characters have.
One finds resolution through a lie, while the other finds resolution in
a truth—the fact that a victim he thought was dead is actually alive.