The Night Train at Deoli by Ruskin Bond Review

The short story "The night train at Deoli" was written by modern Indian writer Ruskin Bond. The author wrote in the introduction of this collection "I prefer to write about the people and places I have known and the lives of those whose paths I have crossed." The important thing that this story describes is a very recognizable thing for many people-- thoughts, feelings, situations.

According to the plot a young eighteen years old man, narrator, who was traveling through the small train station, Deoli, saw a young girl, who was selling baskets. At her request that he buy her basket, he bought one just because he felt sympathy for this girl. In spite of the fact that the narrator thought "I sat up awake for the rest of the journey. I could not rid my mind of the picture of the girl's face and her dark, smoldering eyes." Nevertheless, the memory of that girl faded after a few days.

Next time, when he passed this station again they met again. The narrator described it "I was looking out for her as the train drew into the station, and I felt an unexpected thrill when I saw her walking up the platform." They smiled at each other as do old friends. This time the recollection about the meeting stuck in his memory and next time he deliberately stopped at Deoli. But the girl wasn't there. Nobody knew where she was.

The narrator described in the story his reasoning about the possible intention to find her. He wasn't able to step through the line of his fate, to break away from his conventional life. Another reason was that the possibility of discovering prosaic life awed him. The narrator thought "I was afraid of discovering what really happened to the girl. Perhaps she was no longer in Deoli, perhaps she was married, perhaps she had fallen ill …"

Let's think what makes this story so interesting and memorable for readers. I think that is an ability of the author to describe thoughts such as many people had. Going through the life people meet somebody who could become the intimate friend but it never happened. I thought about the mystery of meeting future spouse, it is impossible to imagine that if the meeting wouldn’t have occurred, the children, my children wouldn't be born.

The story of the boy who kept reminiscing about a casual meeting was concluded by the line "I never break my journey at Deoli, but I pass through as often as I can."



Here is the link to the story, we can find it on page 44 in the book:

The Night Train at Deoli and Other Stories - Ruskin Bond https://archive.org/details/TheNightTrainAtDeoliAndOtherStoriesRuskinBond
This story was discussed with the teacher Laya in online school albert-learning.com