The Astrologer's Setup and Location

The Astrologer's Setup

• The astrologer sets up his professional equipment at midday, consisting of cowrie shells, a square piece of cloth with mystic charts, a notebook, and a bundle of palmyra writing.
• He wears sacred ash and vermilion on his forehead, and his eyes sparkle with a sharp, abnormal gleam, which is actually a result of his continuous search for customers.
• He wears a saffron-colored turban, which never fails to attract people.

The Astrologer's Location

• The astrologer sits under a spreading tamarind tree in the Town Hall Park, where a surging crowd moves up and down the narrow road from morning till night.
• The area is filled with various trades and occupations, including medicine-sellers, sellers of stolen hardware and junk, magicians, and an auctioneer of cheap cloth.
• A vendor of fried groundnuts nearby gives his ware a fancy name each day, attracting a large crowd.

The Astrologer's Business

• The astrologer transacts his business by the light of a flare, which crackles and smokes above the groundnut heap nearby.
• The place is lit up by shop lights, including hissing gaslights, naked flares, and old cycle lamps, creating a bewildering criss-cross of light rays and moving shadows.
• The astrologer's business is based on study, practice, and shrewd guesswork, rather than actual knowledge of the stars.
• He charges three pice per question and never opens his mouth till the other has spoken for at least ten minutes, providing him enough material for a dozen answers and advices.

The Astrologer's Background

• The astrologer was not born into the profession, but rather turned to it after leaving his village without a plan or intention.
• He would have otherwise carried on the work of his forefathers, tilling the land and living in his ancestral home.
• He had to leave home and travel a couple of hundred miles, which is a significant distance for a villager.