Chapter - 6: The Eyes are not Here
— By Ruskin Bond
Comprehension Questions
I. Answer briefly the following questions.
1) The narrator guessed that the couple who saw the girl off at Rohana was probably her parents because of a. they were middle-aged
b. they seemed very anxious
c. they accompanied the girl to the railway station.
d. they gave detailed instructions about the care she had to take.
Answer: (d) they gave detailed instructions about the care she had to take.
2) Why did the narrator feel that he would never be able to discover something about the girl’s looks? Answer: He was blind and he did not want to ask any question that would reveal his blindness. Besides, the girl was going away.
3) The narrator was born completely blind. (Say True/False)
Answer: False
4.
Answer: The narrator inferred that like all people with good eyesight, even she had failed to see what was right in front of her.
5) The girl told the narrator that her aunt was meeting her at Saharanpur. She said this probably because,
a. She wanted to introduce her aunt to the narrator.
b. She wanted to convey a message that he couldn’t take advantage of her thinking that she was alone.
c. It was a casual remark.
Answer: (b) She wanted to convey a message that he couldn’t take advantage of her thinking that she was alone.
6) How could the narrator, being blind, describe Mussoorie?
Answer:
7) With what intention did the narrator remark that the girl had an interesting face?
Answer: He wanted to please her, and also pretend to be normal-sighted.
8) Hiding his blindness was a for the narrator, (challenge/game/child’s play). Choose the correct answer.
Answer: (b) game.
9) The new fellow-traveler had made out that the girl was blind. (Say True/False.)
Answer: True
10) The story ends with a revelation. What is the revelation?
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.
11) The narrator and the girl reveal something about themselves through their words and actions. The adjectives listed in the box below describe the narrator and the girl. Put each word either under the narrator or the girl (Note: some qualities may be common to both). clever, smart, humorous, suspicious, sentimental, curious, emotional, romantic, careful, intuitive, pretentious, confident, guilty, inquisitive.
Answer: The Narrator Clever, humorous sentimental, curious, emotional, romantic, careful, pretentious, guilty, inquisitive.
The Girl Clever, humorous suspicious careful, intuitive confident.
II. Close Study: Read the following extracts carefully, Discuss in pairs and then write the answers to the questions given below them.
1) “You may break, You may shatter the vase if you will, but the scent of the roses will linger there still….” 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.
2) “Once again, I had a game to play, a new fellow traveler”. What kind of the 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: Discuss in pairs /groups of 4 each and answer the following questions. Individually note down the important points and then develop the points into one – paragraph answers.
1) Give instances to show that the narrator tried his best to impress that he was normal sighted during his encounter with the girl.
Answer: He starts the conversation with the girl. He says that even he didn’t see her but heard her. He vividly describes Mussoorie in October. He sits in front of the window and pretends to see outside, and makes a general comment about trees. He makes a non-committal remark about her face. Paragraph: Initiating the conversation and hoping to keep her from realizing that he was blind, he described the scenery from his memories. He also asked the girl a question, and she told him to look out the window for himself. To continue the ruse, the narrator told the girl that she had an interesting face since he did not actually know how she looked.
2) Everyone thinks, he could out-wit anyone but sometimes, he himself is out-witted by others. Substantiate this with reference to the story.
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 normalsighted. Throughout the encounter, he is bothered about what he should say and hence doesn’t pay much attention to what the other person says.
Paragraph: After listening to the parent’s 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.
3) The story ends with the new fellow- traveler telling the narrator that the girl was completely blind. What do you think, would be the feelings and thoughts of the narrator after knowing the truth?
Answer: Narrator is still thinking about the girl who was left. 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 would surely shock the narrator, and ultimately make him feel ashamed about himself. Paragraph: 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.
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