Page 135 - DENG203_ELECTIVE_ENGLISH_IV

Elective English—IV

Notes Narayan was commissioned by the government of Karnataka to write a book to promote
tourism in the state. The work was published as part of a larger government publication
in the late 1970s. He thought it deserved better, and republished it as The Emerald
Route (Indian Thought Publications, 1980).

In 1980, Narayan was nominated to the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Indian
Parliament, for his contributions to literature. During his entire six-year term, he was
focused on one issue—the plight of school children, specifically the heavy load of school
books and the negative effect of the system on a child’s creativity, which was something
that he first highlighted in his debut novel, Swami and Friends.

Narayan’s writing style was simple and unpretentious with a natural element of humour
about it. It focused on ordinary people, reminding the reader of next-door neighbours,
cousins and the like, thereby providing a greater ability to relate to the topic.

“An Astrologer’s Day” was first published in the newspaper The Hindu and then was made
the title story of a collection of short stories which appeared in 1947—the year that India
gained its independence. R.K. Narayan’s first collection of short stories, entitled Malgudi
Days, appeared in 1941.
“An Astrologer’s Day” remains a major work in his corpus and displays all the
characteristics associated with his writing. Narayan’s sense of irony, his deep religious
sensibility, his humour, his consciousness of the significance of everyday occurrences, and
his belief in a Hindu vision of life are all revealed in this story.
The story is about an astrologer, who chose to be one not out of choice but past mysterious
situations in life forced him to be one. So it goes without saying that he was a stranger to
the stars as much his gullible clients, but he did know how to carry out his profession.

“An Astrologer’s Day” has been perceived as a significant work, comparable to anything
else he has written. While many critical accounts have been confined to plot summaries, a
few have drawn attention to the quality of irony that accounts for the strength of the story.
What has not been stressed adequately is that the quality of harmony that informs all his
work also frames this story. There is very little violence in Narayan’s writing.

7.7 Keywords

Astrology: It can be defined as the study of the movements and relative positions of celestial
bodies interpreted as having an influence on human affairs.
Corpus: It is a collection of written texts, especially the entire works of a particular author or a
body of writing on a particular subject.
Denouement: The denouement refers to the resolution of the complications of a plot in a work of
fiction, generally done in a final chapter or section. It generally follows the climax, except in
mystery novels, in which the denouement and the climax may occur at the same time.
Gullible: A gullible person is somebody who can be easily persuaded to believe something.
If you describe someone as gullible, you mean they are easily tricked because they are too
trusting.
Irony: The expression of one's meaning by using language that normally signifies the opposite,
typically for humorous or emphatic effect can be defined as irony.

Novelist: A person who writes novels is called a novelist.

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