The Eyes Are Not Here

2.  Abstract
 Introduction
 About Author
 Character in Story
 The Story
 Title of the Story
 Summary of Story
 The Feature
 Similarities and contrasts that the two
passengers shared
 Thank You

3. Two versions are here compared of a story
that Ruskin Bond wrote for young-adults
in 1955. Intertextual reading of the two
versions and a psychoanalytic
interpretation of the adolescent authorial
psyche embedded in the story have
brought into focus the metafiction
inherent in representation. The
restoration of the original version which,
due to its unavailability, has been
forgotten, is argued for.

4.  The task of tracing the intricate dynamics of correspondences
between the subject and the object in the making of the
authorial self is not only difficult, but has become problematic
since psychoanalytic interpreters of the self have argued against
the existence of such a subject/object dyad. If the cognitive
process is influenced by the pre-existent unconscious, the
external world loses its independence and becomes a function of
the subject’s unconscious.
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.

5. Ruskin Bond was born in Kasauli, Himachal Pradesh , on 19th May, 1934, and
grew up in Shimla, Jamnagar, Dehradun and Mussoorie. As a young man,
he spent four years in the Channel Island and London. He now lives in
Landour, Mussoorie, with his adopted family.
Most of Bond's writings show a very strong influence from the social life in
the hill stations at the foothills of the Himalayas, where he spent his
childhood. His first novel, "The Room On the Roof", was written when he
was 17 and published when he was 21.

6. It was partly based on his experiences at Dehra, in his small rented room on the roof,
and his friends. The "Room On the Roof" brought him the John Llewellyn Rhys
Memorial Prize in 1957. Since then he has written over three hundred short
stories, essays and novellas (including Vagrants in The Valley, The Blue Umbrella
and A Flight of Pigeons) and more than 30 books for children. He has also
published two volumes of autobiography. Scenes from a Writer's Life, which
describes his formative years growing up in Anglo-India, and The Lamp is Lit, a
collection of essays and episodes from his journal.

7. The Eyes Are Not
Here
/ The Eyes Have It
/ The Girl on the train

8. The Narrator :
He is the main character and the traveller who meets a girl in
the train
The Girl:
She is a passenger who travels with the narrator for a while
The Fellow Passenger :
He is the passenger who makes the narrator realize that the
girl was blind

9.  The Eyes Have It is a marvellous short story of Ruskin
Bond who has used first person narrative technique in the
story. Here everything is narrated by the person who
himself is blind. His eyes are sensitive only to light and
darkness. While going to Dehradun by train he comes
across a girl. He starts conversation and gradually
becomes interested in her. He tactfully hides his blindness
from the girl to impress her. But the conversation does not
last long. The girl bids him good-bye as the train arrives at
her destination. After her departure, a new male
passenger comes into the compartment. From that man
the narrator learns that the girl was completely blind. The
revelation shocks the narrator. He feels that he has
deceived himself. This is an ironical twist that makes the
end of the story so appealing..

10.  Up to Rohana, the narrator was alone in the compartment.
A girl gets into the compartment at that station. Her
parents bid her goodbye at the station and advise her about
her well-being, instructing her on where to keep her
belongings, not to lean out of the window and to avoid
talking to strangers.
 Here the narrator surprisingly reveals that he is a sightless
person. Once the train leaves the station, the narrator
strikes up a conversation with the girl asking if she is going
to Dehradun. The voice startles her as she had thought that
she was alone in the compartment. The girl told him that
she was going to Saharanpur where her aunt would come to
receive her. The narrator speaks aboutMussoorie, where he
was headed to, presenting a lovely sight of the place in
October (the month in which the story takes place).

11.  Throughout the conversation the narrator
consciously keeps up the pretense of being a person
with complete and perfect sight. Though he is
mostly careful in choosing his words, he notes at a
few points of time that he had almost given himself
up due to some careless comments.
 After some more interesting talk, the narrator tells
her, quite daringly, that she has an interesting face.
She replies happily that it was indeed a welcome
deviation from the often repeated phrase: "You have
a pretty face".
 Soon the time comes for the girl to bid goodbye as
the train arrives at her destination. Then the author
hears a commotion near the door of the carriage
and a man apologizing.
Conti….

12.  The man then entered the compartment and
apologizes to the narrator too for not being as
attractive a traveling companion as the
previous one. When the narrator asks him how
the girl has worn her hair, the other person
replies had not noticed her hair but saw only
her eyes, which were beautiful but of no use to
her, as she was completely blind. The last
question this man asks to the narrator is if he
had not noticed it too.
 The story ends with the narrator resuming his
game of posing as a person with sight.
Conti.

13.  The Eyes Have It is an ideal short story. It is short in
length and can be easily finished in one go. It has a
limited number of characters – the narrator, the girl
and the new passenger.
 It illustrates Bond’s art of story telling which is simple
in approach but universal in appeal. It tells a simple
tale in a lucid style with a deep insight into the
psychology of men. It ends with a striking discovery,
and its plot is well-knit. Bond makes the story a vivid
one by using the first person narrative technique.
 The setting of the story is very simple and interesting.
Everything happens in the train compartment and the
time chosen is October when Mussoorie looks
beautiful.

14.  It is full of ironical turns and twists. There is a
real humour in the narrator’s attempt to
conceal his blindness. But this humour takes
an ironical turn when he discovers that the
girl is also blind.
 It shows Ruskin Bond’s sympathy for the
blind and for their troubles and loneliness.
Through the personal experience of the blind
narrator Bond focuses on universal human
experiences.
 It shows Bond’s mastery in the art of
characterization. Like the great French master
Maupassant Bond also chooses common
people to create interesting situations. Conti.

15.  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.

16.  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.