The power of this very short horror story from Ruskin Bond is in the way the events described mirror what one might experience in a nightmare. As an alternative to supernatural forces, Bond cleverly presents a logical explanation for the night’s events: the way faces can appear ghostly by torchlight. Either way, the major theme of the story is fear when confronted with the unknown. A possible moral is that we shouldn’t judge people who look or dress differently due to their race, class, gender identity, religion, etc. Other themes include the supernatural and imagination vs. reality.
If one accepts the “distortion of faces by torchlight” explanation, it is possible that the whole scenario may have been a cruel practical joke. The teacher’s students would no doubt be aware of his habit of taking the short-cut home through the forest, and we are told that the crying boy is one of them ( He took his hands from his face and looked up at his teacher.)
This interpretation also lends a sense of irony to the denouement. The teacher, an educated, supposedly rational Westerner, explains his fear over the ghostly vision to the (stereo-typically) less educated, superstitious Indian watchman. The watchman is clear-minded enough to instantly grasp the true situation, and playfully lifts his lamp to his own face to demonstrate.
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