The Eyes are not Here

About the Author & Lesson

Ruskin Bond (born 1934): A renowned Indian author of British descent, Ruskin Bond has written hundreds of short stories, essays, and novels. He is celebrated for his simple yet powerful storytelling and his deep connection to the nature and people of the Himalayan foothills.

The Lesson: "The Eyes are not Here" is a masterfully crafted short story centered on irony and perception. It depicts a train journey where a blind narrator encounters a girl, only to realize later that they both were hiding their blindness from each other. The story explores the internal world of the visually impaired and how assumptions shape human interaction.

I. Comprehension Questions (Brief Answers)

Answer: (d) they gave detailed instructions about the care she had to take.

Answer: The narrator was completely blind and his eyes were sensitive only to light and darkness. Hence, he felt he would never be able to discover something about her looks.

Answer: The narrator liked the sound of her voice and even the sound of her slippers as they slapped against her heels.

Answer: The narrator inferred that like all people with good eyesight, even she had failed to see what was right in front of her.

Answer: (b) She wanted to convey a message that he couldn't take advantage of her thinking that she was alone.

Answer: The narrator described Mussoorie from his memories of the time when he had eyesight.

Answer: He wanted to please her, and also pretend to be normal-sighted.

Answer: (b) game.

Answer: True

Answer: The narrator had thought he was playing a game and trying to fool a normal-sighted person. He came to know that he was actually trying to fool a person blind like him. He also realized that even she had played a similar game with him, hiding her blindness.

The Narrator: Clever, humorous, sentimental, curious, emotional, romantic, careful, pretentious, guilty, inquisitive.
The Girl: Clever, humorous, suspicious, careful, intuitive, confident.

II. Close Study (Extracts)

a. What is the figure of speech used in the passage above?
Answer: Metaphor.

b. What is the vase compared to?
Answer: A person.

c. What does the shattering of the vase refer to?
Answer: A person's going away.

d. What does ‘the scent of the roses’ refer to?
Answer: Their memories.

a. What kind of game does the speaker play with his fellow travelers?
Answer: A game through which he tries to fool the other person into thinking that he is normal-sighted.

b. What do you understand from this about his attitude?
Answer: He resents his blindness and also thinks that normal-sighted people are over-confident about their powers of observation.

c. Who had out-witted whom in the game already played by the narrator?
Answer: The girl had outwitted the narrator.

III. Paragraph Writing

Answer: Initiating the conversation and hoping to keep her from realizing that he was blind, the narrator described the scenery from his memories. He vividy described Mussoorie in October. He sat in front of the window and pretended to see outside, making a general comment about trees seeming to move while the train seemed to stand still. To continue the ruse, the narrator told the girl that she had an interesting face, since he did not actually know how she looked.

Answer: The narrator plays this game of pretense with strangers. He never talks about his blindness and takes it for granted that the others are normal-sighted. Throughout the encounter, he is bothered about what he should say and hence doesn't pay much attention to what the other person says. After listening to the parents' conversation with the daughter, the narrator could not distinguish any unusual advice or information that led him to believe the girl had any handicap herself. The narrator fooled himself. Apparently, he also misled the girl because she did not realize that her fellow traveler was blind either.

Answer: Even after the girl left, the narrator was still thinking about her. When the new traveler comes into the compartment, the narrator is getting ready for another round of his favorite game. The surprising remark by the traveler that the girl was completely blind would surely shock the narrator and ultimately make him feel ashamed of himself. Both the readers and the narrator ultimately learn a very valuable lesson about the influence of initial assumptions on the ways we perceive (or fail to perceive) the world and other persons.