The Great Train Journey

by Ruskin Bond

He felt a bit sorry for his mother and father—they would miss him…they would believe he had been lost for ever…! But one day, a fortune made, he would return home and then nobody would care any more about school reports and what he ate and why he came home late…Ranji would be waiting for him at the station, and Suraj would bring him back a present—an African lion, perhaps, or a transistor-radio… But he wished Ranji was with him now; he wished the ragged hippy

still with him. An adventure was always more fun when one had company.

Well, it often happens that people with good eyesight fail to see what is right in front of them. They have too much to take in, I suppose. Whereas people who cannot see (or see very little) have to take in only the essentials, whatever registers tellingly on their remaining senses.

The skin cannot change the eyes; the eyes are the true reflection of a man’s age and sensibilities; even a blind man has hidden eyes.

‘If women were not practical, most marriages would be failures.’