Describe the position in society of astrology in relation to science in Narayan's "An Astrologer's Day."

"An Astrologer's Day" is set around the 1920s. Science of
the day was in a period, much like today, of exciting expansion with new science being
discovered and new technology being developed from the discoveries. For instance,
Einstein discovered the explanation of what is called the photoelectric effect thus
winning a Nobel Prize; Siegbahn discovered X-ray spectrometry; and Prince de Broglie
discovered that electrons are both waves and particles. Various scientific discoveries
like these and earlier ones resulted in new technologies like radio, television,
toasters, air conditioners, and vacuum cleaners for "hoovering."

At
this time in India, and still evident today, there was a comfortable duality with both
astrological and scientific ideas and beliefs viewed as legitimate systems and holding
sway in people's lives. For instance, to take an example from the author's own life,
when Narayan--a much honored author--met his future wife, they had to overcome a
seemingly insurmountable obstacle to their marriage because their astrological
horoscopes did not match--meaning they would not be suitable marriage partners (she died
early of typhoid fever after only four years of marriage).

Therefore,
in India, during the time in which Narayan set and wrote the story, astrology had an
important and powerful position in society--even for university educated men and
women--as it could govern commonplace and important events in their lives. At the same
time, India, having a British based and controlled university system, was participating
in scientific research just like the rest of the world. As result of the important place
of both traditional astrology and scientific expansion, a positron of comfortable
duality existed between astrology and science.