The conclusion of “An Astrologer's Day” comes when the
astrologer returns home to his wife and, after a quiet supper, explains to her in a few
brief sentences the meaning of his meeting with the customer at the vendors' market. Up
until the conclusion, the reader really has no idea of what the astrologer knows or
doesn't know or, more importantly, of why he had to run away from his village under
cover of dark in his youth. Plus, we have no idea how that event might relate to story
or to the customer.
The conclusion explains that the customer is the
reason for the astrologer's flight from home because he is the man the astrologer
stabbed, as he believed, to death:
"[You] were pushed into a well nearby in a field.
You were left for dead."
From
this revelation we understand two other things about the astrologer. Not only was he
protecting his own life by telling the customer that his attacker had died in "a far-off
town," (1) he is also giving the customer the satisfaction of hearing that his attacker
has met an end that might be considered just punishment for his deed, that of being
"crushed by a lorry."
In addition, (2) he is exposing the truth about
himself that all these years he has been trying to atone for his evil action by doing
good to as many as he can by being a good astrologer who listens, understands and gives
"good advises.” Therefore, the conclusion, the scene between astrologer and wife--to
whom he has been so good that she has no thought he could have done evil--explains why
he had to leave his village; how he knew the customer's life; why he kept trying to back
out of the challenge; and how he knew what to say about the customer's assailant. It
also gives insight into what kind of man the astrologer really is, and what his present
motive in life has been: to atone: "I thought I had the blood of a man on my hands all
these years."
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