Character of the girl in Ruskin Bond's story "The Eyes Have It".
Answers
The Eyes Have It (also known as The Girl on the Train & The Eyes Are Not Here) is a short story by Ruskin Bond that was originally published in Contemporary Indian English Stories.
The narrator of this story, a blind man whose eyes were sensitive to light and darkness, was going to Dehradun by train when he met a girl and had a chit-chat with her. It was only after she left and another passenger came into the compartment that the narrator realizes the girl was blind.
The narrator was in a train, travelling to Dehradun. He was blind but took enormous pride in his ability to behave quite normally with fellow passengers behind his eye shade. After a while a young girl got into the compartment from Rohana Station and he was cheered up.
The narrator talked to the young woman, endlessly, skillfully concealing his blindness and the girl was easily deceived. She talked to him as if he was perfectly sighted. After a couple of stations the girl got down at her destination and another passenger got in.
The narrator continued to play his hide and seek with his new companion. On casually asking if the girl had long hair or short, the new companion told him that the girl was blind.
Similarities and contrasts that the two passengers shared:
The narrator was blind and he wished to hide it from the girl.
The narrator was fond of talking.
The narrator was skilled in keeping his blindness from others.
The narrator was a romantic fool altogether.
The narrator represents men in common who love the company of a woman.
The girl too was blind and she too attempted to keep it from the narrator.
In spite of her parent’s warning, the girl too loved to talk.
The girl was smarter in keeping her blindness from the narrator.
The girl was focussed. She didn’t wish to cherish a brief encounter with a man.
The girl represents women in common who love the safety in the presence of a man and vanish without a goodbye because she has reached safely.