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Elective English—IV

Notes What the astrologer says hereafter takes the client as well as the reader by surprise.
He was left for dead, a knife had passed through him once, and he was pushed into a well
nearby in the field. The effect is further heightened when the astrologer even gives out his
correct name. Guru Nayak is completely stumped. When asked about the whereabouts of
the man who stabbed him and left him for dead, the astrologer confidently tells Guru
Nayak to give up the hunt because the assailant had died four months ago, crushed under
a lorry in a far-off town. The astrologer also advices Guru Nayak to go home and stay up
there and never travel southward again.
This episode leaves us with new-found admiration for the astrologer. How could he so
correctly read the stranger’s past and even known his name? Had he studied the stars and
mastered the art, contrary to the common belief? Did he possess some uncanny powers,
which could be put to good use, when needed?
4. Denouement: The story takes another twist when the astrologer reaches home and confides
with his wife the reason why he had run away from home, settled here, and married her.
All these years he had thought that the blood of a man was on his hands. This past
incidence had happened when he was a youngster, got drunk, gambled and got into a
quarrel. But now the man he thought he had killed was alive. Thus a great load was off his
chest.
This is the reason why the astrologer had to leave his village without any plan or preparation.
And this was how he could so correctly talk of Guru Nayak’s troubled past.
The story thus ends with an incredible twist: “a murdered man” turns up to consult his “murderer”,
who is now an astrologer, regarding when he will be able to have his revenge; the “murderer”
recognizes him by the matchlight when the former had lit his cheroot but he cannot recognize
his old enemy in his garb as an astrologer. The client is astonished to be told about his previous
history by the astrologer, and meekly agrees to give up his search for his enemy declared to
have been crushed under a lorry months ago. Thus the astrologer ensured for himself a safe and
secure life hereafter. Convinced that his assailant had been crushed under a lorry months ago,
Guru Nayak would not want to venture out of his village when it his life was at risk. Thus, all the
mystery begins to fall in place and the loose ends are tied into a unified whole.

7.5.2 Atmosphere

The author, R.K. Narayan, has an eye for detail. He creates an atmosphere of a perfect work place
for the astrologer.

Illustrations:
His professional equipment 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”.

The boughs of the spreading tamarind tree, the surging crowd moving up and down the
narrow road morning till night, the variety of traders- medicine sellers, sellers of stolen
hardware and junk, magicians, auctioneers of cheap cloth, and vendors of fried groundnut-
vociferously vying with each other to attract the crowd created a remarkable work place
for the astrologer.
The light and smoke of the crackling flare above the groundnut heap, enchantment of the
place created by lack of lighting, hissing gaslights and bewildering criss-cross of light
rays and moving shadows created the right setting for an astrologer.

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