Question

Give a critical appreciat

ion of the story the night train at deoli

Answer 1

Answer:The university student narrator tells of his train ride every summer to visit his grandmother.

In the early pre-dawn hours, the train stops at Deoli where "nothing ever happens." This sets

up the encounter between the boy and the young girl selling baskets. She is poor, barefoot,

thinly clothed, but "then those eyes, searching and eloquent, met mine." (2) He jumps off the

train to get closer and buys a basket. The train whistle brings him back. On his return trip to

Delhi, he sees her at the station again, and this time, he meets her and talks to her briefly.

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The third time he vows to be bolder in expressing his feelings, but she is not there and no one

at the station can tell him where she is. His true feelings come out:

What could I do about finding a girl I had seen only twice, who had hardly spoken

to me, and about whom I knew nothing-absolutely nothing-but for whom I felt a

tenderness and responsibility that I had never felt before? (5)

The student fantasizes stopping at Deoli, getting off the train and looking for her, but he never

does. The final paragraph is written years later, in retrospect, "I never break my journey to

Deoli, but I pass through as often as I can" (6).

This story of first love is something every student has experienced. Especially college

students can identify with the class difference between the narrator and the basket girl. Even

girl students can imagine falling in love with a street vendor. And everyone can savor the

bitter sweetness of that feeling that has no expression.

Explanation: