The story begins with the description of an astrologer who is sitting under a tamarind tree. On the forehead he has smeared sacred ash and vermilion. There was something special about his eyes. There was a sparkle in them that attracted people. This light was mistaken as prophetic light by his simple customers whereas R.K. Narayan describes this as the outcome of the continuous search for customers. He had dark mustache that came down to his cheeks. To complete the look he had a saffron coloured turban as well.
He had cowrie shells and a square piece of cloth with obscure mystic charts and a bundle of palmyra writing. He was always searching for a customer in the crowd. The place where he was seated was surrounded by a variety of other traders like medicine sellers, auctioneer of cheap cloth, magicians as well as people who sold stolen goods. There was a vendor who sold fried groundnuts but called his product by different names each day like ‘Bombay Ice-cream’, ‘Delhi Almond’, ‘Raja’s Delicacy’, etc. Most of the people who came to the vendor went to the astrologer too.
The entire place was lighted with shop lights. This is a very common sight in India. The astrologer was someone who knew very little of his own future. He was as much unaware of the stars as his customers, yet he could manage to astonish people with what he said.
This he made possible with practice and shrewd calculation. He was clever enough to trick others with his guesses. He managed to make a living as an astrologer because of his experience. He knew that people had problems due to money, marriage and household issues. Within five minutes he could guess what was wrong and never spoke for the first ten minutes. He let his customers talk and gathered information for many of the answers from which he would create his advice for them. He had some questions which he usually asked to get clues as to what advice he should give his customers. Each question was charged at the rate of three paise.
One evening, after the nut vendor had blown out the light and when every other trader was getting ready to go home, the astrologer saw a man before him. The man challenged the astrologer by saying that if the astrologer gave him the right answers for his questions then he would give him eight annas and if he failed then the astrologer would have to pay him back twice the amount. The astrologer happily accepted the challenge. But when he saw the man’s face from the light of a match stick, he quickly gave back the amount he had taken.
The man caught the astrologer by his wrist and said he could not back out now. The astrologer finally agreed to speak for a rupee and he began. The man was shocked by the astrologer’s revelations. He said that the man was once left to die and that he was stabbed with a knife once. He also said that the man was pushed into a well near a field. The astrologer even goes to the extent of calling the man by his name – Guru Nayak.
With this the man is very pleased and impressed with the all knowing astrologer’s knowledge. The astrologer advises the man to go back to his home town and never travel southwards again. He proceeds to say that the man who he was looking for is no longer alive. Four months ago he met with an accident and was crushed under a lorry. To this the man says that he was there in search of that man to take revenge and now that he was dead he would return home. The man leaves and the astrologer returns home. He tells his wife about his life before he met her.
He tells her that in his home town he used to play cards, gamble, drink and quarrel. It so happened that one day he picked up a quarrel with a man and in the heat of the moment stabbed him. He pushed him into a well and left him for dead.
He left his village thinking that he had the blood of another man on his hands. But now he says he can live peacefully not because Guru Nayak is alive but that after today’s session he would never come back there again. Guru Nayak could not identify the astrologer and the astrologer easily escaped from the hands of his enemy. After telling his wife of what had happened he stretched himself on the pyol and went to sleep. His wife was happy to get the money paid by the stranger as she could prepare some sweets for her child who had been asking for sweets for some days now.
