Hello readers! I am Divya Parmar and I warmly welcome you all to read my blog. This blog is a response to the thinking activity on a short story by R. K. Narayan. In this blog I will write about R. K. Narayan secondly i will write about the summary of the short story “An Astrologer's Day" after that question-answers as a part of thinking activity.
About R. K. Narayan :
R.K. Narayan, in full Rasipuram Krishnaswami Narayan, original name Rasipuram Krishnaswami Narayanswami, (born October 10, 1906, Madras [Chennai], India—died May 13, 2001, Madras), one of the finest Indian authors of his generation writing in English.
Reared by his grandmother, Narayan completed his education in 1930 and briefly worked as a teacher before deciding to devote himself to writing. His first novel, Swami and Friends (1935), is an episodic narrative recounting the adventures of a group of schoolboys. That book and much of Narayan’s later works are set in the fictitious South Indian town of Malgudi. Narayan typically portrays the peculiarities of human relationships and the ironies of Indian daily life, in which modern urban existence clashes with ancient tradition. His style is graceful, marked by genial humour, elegance, and simplicity.
Summary of the short story:
‘An Astrologer’s Day’ is a story from the Indian author R. K. Narayan’s 1943 collection Malgudi Days. The Malgudi of the collection’s title is a fictional city in India, where all of the stories in the collection take place. The opening story in the book, ‘An Astrologer’s Day’ is about an unnamed astrologer who is confronted by a stranger who questions his abilities.
The story is about a man who makes a living as an astrologer, sitting under a tree in a busy street every day and offering to tell the fortune of any passer-by who is willing to pay for him to do so. However, the ‘astrologer’ in reality knows little of the stars, and instead tends to rely on shrewd guesses, cold reading, and letting his clients talk for long enough for him to gain enough background to their lives in order to create the illusion that he somehow knows things about them which they have not told him.
He also tends to tell them things which he senses they want to hear, knowing that people are more likely to be willing to hand over money to someone who tells them positive things rather than someone who delivers bad news. One night, as he is preparing to head home having finished his evening’s work, the astrologer spots a man and invites him to sit with him and have his fortune read. However, the stranger calls into doubt the astrologer’s abilities, and challenges him. He will give him an anna (one-sixteenth of a rupee) but if the astrologer’s answer is unsatisfactory, the astrologer must pay him the anna back, with interest.
They negotiate, and the stranger agrees to pay the astrologer eight annas if he gives him satisfactory answers, but the astrologer must give the stranger more than that if he fails to prove his talents.
After an unpromising start, which fails to impress the stranger, the astrologer correctly identifies that the man was stabbed and then thrown into a well, where he was left for dead. He also tells the man his name, Guru Nayak. When Nayak asks the astrologer when he will meet the man who tried to kill him so he can exact his revenge, the astrologer replies that the man died four months ago in a far-off town.
The astrologer then tells Nayak to return home to his village and never leave again. If he does this, he will live to be a hundred. Nayak is only too happy to agree to this, revealing that he only left his village to try to locate the man who almost killed him. Now he knows the man is dead (the astrologer tells him he was crushed under a lorry), he is satisfied.
When the astrologer arrives home to his wife, there is a twist. It turns out that he was the man who attacked Guru Nayak and left him for dead. This is how he knew the man’s identity. He was able to throw Nayak off the scent and save himself from the man’s vengeance, using his authority as an astrologer to advise the man to return home.
Video clip of the movie :
Question - Answer:
1 . How faithful is the movie to the original short story?
After reading the summary and watching the video clip we can compare both the things. The starting movie is faithful to the story. Midday startup of Astrologer's Day. Astrologer talked about so many things to his customers. Same like the story, in movie astrologers also talk about marriage, money and tangles of human ties etc. After the whole story continues as it is.
2. After watching the movie, has your perception about the short story, characters or situations changed?
As we know, when a part of literature is turned into a movie or video it gives visual effects and is more real or more interesting. Same as in this movie we find that some movie elements, social elements are portrayed very well in comparison of story.
3 . Do you feel 'aesthetic delight' while watching the movie? If yes, exactly when did it happen? If not, Can you explain with reason?
When Astrologer is not allowed by guru Nayak to play psychological human mind tricks! Which was everytime played by astrologer… at that time for a while astrologer denayed but after he accept the challenge and we can luck or good fate of astrologer he able to mannage his respect.
4 . Does screening of movie help you in better understanding of the short story?
Yes! Any visual things always create more effect and drag reader or viewers to more close to actual literature. Same hear in story visual make more effective and interesting which attrect our mind and make better understanding of story.
5 . Was there any particular scene or moment in the story that you think was perfect?
In the end where astrologer confess his crime in front of his wife that was the perfect scene according to my point of view.
6 . If you are the director, what changes would you like to make in the remaking of the movie based on the short story "An Astrologer's Day" by R. K. Narayan?
If i have chance to direct this movie, first of all i want to make it more fulfull things in astrology and after that i want to make chnage in last. And it is like Astrologer's confession front of guru Nayak. Then it is open for audience to conclude that what should guru Nayak behave….
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Video : 1
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