Introducation
This is a response of thinking
activity on short stories of R.K Narayan. In this blog I have wrote about ‘’An
Astrologer’s Day. Which is based on malgudi
days
About Writer
Life is about making right things and what going on. :R.K.Narayan
R. K. Narayan was born on 10 October 1906 and passed away in
2001. In his long career he published fourteen novels, over two hundred short
stories, a memoir, two travel books, innumerable essays, and two plays. His
first novel was Swami and Friends (1935). His last
published work was Grandmother's Tale (1992), which in many
ways reinforced the concerns and motifs of his writing in his long
career—themes like exile and return, education , woman and her status in the
society, myths and the ancient Indian past, tradition and modernity, Malgudi
and its culture, appearance and reality, the family and so on. These have been
Narayan's consistent concerns in a career spanning over nearly seventy years.
In this deep ploughing of a small plot of literary land, Narayan almost
resembles Jane Austen who too, in a somewhat shorter career, painted in varying
colours a small canvas of quintessential English life and manners. While the
range of Austen or Narayan may be small, their depth places them in the ranks
of the truly great novelists of their times. Perhaps no special case needs to
be made for Austen because of the enormous scholarship on her. One might
however need to highlight Narayan's excellences. In our postmodernist times a
writer like him, who is not obscure, difficult or dense in his writings, is
likely to be less in favour, though recent scholarship has begun to evaluate
him in post-colonial-post-modern terms.
Works of R.K.Narayan
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What is short Story?
short story, brief
fictional prose narrative that is shorter than a novel and that usually deals with only a
few characters.
The short
story is usually concerned with a single effect conveyed in only one or a few
significant episodes or scenes. The form encourages economy of setting, concise narrative, and the omission
of a complex plot;
character is disclosed in action and dramatic encounter but is seldom fully
developed. Despite its relatively limited scope, though, a short story is often
judged by its ability to provide a “complete” or satisfying treatment of its
characters and subject.
About An
Astrologer’s Day
"An Astrologer's
Day" is a thriller, suspense story which describes a day in the
life of an ordinary but fake astrologer. The main character here in this story
is an astrologer who is unnamed.
Characters in Astrologer’s
Day
Astrologer
Guru Nayak
Wife of astrologer
Summary of an
astrologer’s day
The story begins with a description of the place and environment
in which the astrologer meets his clients and does his work. He begins his work
every day at midday in a public place under a large tree that is close to a
public park in his town. The place chosen for his work is generally full of
people who pass by or gather there, such as customers attracted by vendors of
nuts, sweetmeats, and other snacks. It is a place poorly lighted in the
evening, and because the astrologer has no light of his own, he must depend on
what light comes from the flickering lamps kept by neighboring vendors; a dully
lighted, murky place is best for his purpose. He is not an astrologer by
profession but was led into it by circumstances that forced him to leave his
village, where, if he had stayed, he would have settled down to a life of
tilling the land.
He has a practical knowledge of the common problems of most
people: “marriage, money, and the tangles of human ties.” His sharp eyes, used
to scanning for customers, make people believe he has an unusual ability to
tell people’s fortunes.
“An Astrologer’s Day” opens as its title character arrives at
his workplace, at midday, and as usual spreads his charts and other
fortune-telling props before him, though no one comes seeking his aid for many
hours. Later, with nightfall approaching, he begins preparing to go home when,
all of a sudden, he beholds a man standing in front of him. In the exchange of
talk that ensues, the astrologer carefully tries to spread the net of his craft
around the client, and the client, Guru Nayak, responds with a challenge: Would
the astrologer tell him whether he, Guru Nayak, will be successful in a search
he is carrying out, returning double the fee he has paid if the prediction
cannot be made? The astrologer alternately accepts, declines, and feigns
indifference, all the more to whet Nayak’s appetite and make him press his
offer. The astrologer then catches a glimpse of Nayak’s face (previously
shrouded in darkness) in the light of the match Nayak has struck under his
cheroot, and, though at first chilled by the sight, decides to play out Nayak’s
game: The astrologer tells him that he was once left for dead by another man,
who had attacked him with a knife; Nayak, astonished, bares his chest to show
the scar and wants to know if his assailant is alive. The astrologer,
addressing him by name (to his further surprise), adds that his assailant is
now dead and that he, Guru Nayak, should go back to his village and live out
his life peacefully. To placate the still angry Nayak, who demands to know if
the assailant met the kind of death he deserved, the astrologer replies that he
was crushed under a lorry (truck). Nayak pays him the fee and hurriedly
departs. The astrologer returns home late to his anxious wife and gives her the
money he earned that day, adding that it all came from one client. The wife is
happy but notices a slightly changed expression on her husband’s face; she asks
him if there is something wrong. “Nothing,” he says but after dinner tells her
that he is relieved that the man he thought he killed in a drunken brawl many
years earlier is, in fact, alive. He says that it is late and goes to sleep on
a pyol (mat).
For the better understanding of story we had watch a movie (an adoption of the original story )related to this movie
we are asked for several
question as a part of task. Here I wrote answer of those question as per my
understanding.
Questions
1. How faithful
is the movie to the original short story?
Movie is completely faithful to the original short story.
There is some changes like when we read original story there is
description like he wore saffron turbon but when we watch a movie there is
nothing like it.in the original short story astrologer says it is time to sleep.
When in the movie there is nothing like it. Before the astrologer sleeps he stretches
himself in the movie in the original text there is nothing like it.
2.After Watching movie has your perception of short story, characters
, situation has changed?
Yes, of course before watching movie I believe that in the short
story the moral is only one and it is As you sow, so you reap
but
in this movie it wasn’t happened at all. Although astrologer did wrong deed. He doesn’t got punish so this perception is change here.
3.Do you find aesthic
delight while watching the movie?
If yes when did it happens ? if no then explain with reasons.
No, I did not found an aesthic
delight because there is no particular
climax scene by which it feels like
aesthic delight. When watching movie it is only delight not an aesthic delight.
4.Does the movie screening help you for better understanding of the movie?
Yes, the movie screeing helping us for better understanding of movie.by the movie screening we get a chance to see the gesture, posture of a character their speech as well as background of the character. When in the text it doesn’t happen
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