In today's India and india of yesteryears, there is not much of a difference as far as the belief in astrology is concemed. People believed in astrologers then and now. What we do not understand is that no one can predict Gods design. The astrologers like Shastri, themselves, do not really know the correct calculations of the planets, but they pretend to do so. Most of these predictions are based upon the Information supplied earlier by someone. In the story, Rangas Marriage', the Shastri is very well tutored by the in advance. He tells Ranga exactly the same thing What the narrator asks him He pretends do all the calculations and waves his lips but these are all pretentions.