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Unit 7: An Astrologer’s Day by R.K. Narayan

The Bachelor of Arts In subsequent interviews, Narayan acknowledges that The English Teacher was Notes
almost entirely an autobiography, albeit with different names for the characters and the change
of setting in Malgudi; he also explains that the emotions detailed in the book reflected his own
at the time of Rajam’s death.

Bolstered by some of his successes, in 1940 Narayan tried his hand at a journal, Indian Thought. With
the help of his uncle, a car salesman, Narayan managed to get more than a thousand subscribers
in Madras city alone. However, the venture did not last long due to Narayan’s inability to
manage it, and it ceased publication within a year. His first collection of short stories, Malgudi
Days, was published in November 1942, followed by The English Teacher in 1945. In between,
being cut off from England due to the war, Narayan started his own publishing company,
naming it Indian Thought Publications; the publishing company was a success and is still active,
now managed by his granddaughter. Soon, with a devoted readership stretching from New
York to Moscow, Narayan’s books started selling well and in 1948 he started building his own
house on the outskirts of Mysore; the house was completed in 1953.
After The English Teacher, Narayan’s writings took a more imaginative and creative external
style compared to the semi-autobiographical tone of the earlier novels. His next effort,
Mr. Sampath, was the first book exhibiting this modified approach. However, it still draws from
some of his own experiences, particularly the aspect of starting his own journal; he also makes
a marked movement away from his earlier novels by intermixing biographical events. Soon
after, he published The Financial Expert, considered to be his masterpiece and hailed as one of the

most original works of fiction in 1951. The inspiration for the novel was a true story about a
financial genius, Margayya, related to him by his brother. The next novel, Waiting for the Mahatma,
loosely based on a fictional visit to Malgudi by Mahatma Gandhi, deals with the protagonist’s
romantic feelings for a woman, when he attends the discourses of the visiting Mahatma. The
woman, named Bharti, is a loose parody of Bharati, the personification of India and the focus of
Gandhi’s discourses. While the novel includes significant references to the Indian independence
movement, the focus is on the life of the ordinary individual, narrated with Narayan’s usual
dose of irony.
In 1953, his works were published in the United States for the first time, by Michigan State
University Press, who later (in 1958), relinquished the rights to Viking Press. While Narayan’s
writings often bring out the anomalies in social structures and views, he was himself a
traditionalist; in February 1956, Narayan arranged his daughter’s wedding following all
orthodox Hindu rituals. After the wedding, Narayan began travelling occasionally, continuing
to write at least 1500 words a day even while on the road. The Guide was written while he was
visiting the United States in 1956 on the Rockefeller Fellowship. While in the U.S., Narayan
maintained a daily journal that was to later serve as the foundation for his book My Dateless
Diary. Around this time, on a visit to England, Narayan met his friend and mentor Graham
Greene for the first time. On his return to India, The Guide was published; the book is the most
representative of Narayan’s writing skills and elements, ambivalent in expression, coupled
with a riddle-like conclusion. The book won him the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1958.

Occasionally, Narayan was known to give form to his thoughts by way of essays, some published
in newspapers and journals, others not. Next Sunday (1960), was a collection of such conversational

essays, and his first work to be published as a book.Soon after that, My Dateless Diary, describing
experiences from his 1956 visit to the United States, was published. Also included in this collection
was an essay about the writing of The Guide.
Narayan’s next novel, The Man-Eater of Malgudi, was published in 1961. The book was reviewed
as having a narrative that is a classical art form of comedy, with delicate control. After the
launch of this book, the restless Narayan once again took to travelling, and visited the U.S. and

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