Chapter 6

The chapter starts with Anand and the sweeper girl trying to get into the station without an tickets. The girl says that they need to wait until a large group comes along and slip past the ticket checker with them. A large group walks by and Anand tries to sneak in but the ticket checker catches him. Just when the ticket checker is about to turn in Anand to the police another old man says in a quavery voice "Excuse me, sir," "I see my nephew has gotten here before me. Thank you for holding on to him. I would have the hardest time finding him if he had gotten past the gate! Ah, here are our tickets." The tickets turn out to be first class and the ticket checker ushers them in saying that they will miss the train if they are late. The old man then rushes Anand to the compartment. And out of his bag produces all of Anands favorite foods! Anand asks in surprise how he knew these were his favorite foods. The old man laughs and says that these are his favorite foods too and that they have a lot in common. Anand glances out the window and sees the girl. She seems to be beckoning but then Anand realizes that she is telling him not to eat. The old man notices her too and tells Anand to call her so that she can join them. Anand is about to call her but then realizes that she is already moving towards the train although it seems like it is against her will. Anand turns to ask the old man what is going on but is surprised to see that instead of a smile his face is contorted into a sneer. The girl desperately tries to say the phrase she was saying earlier but can only say white wall instead of the whole phrase. The old man laughs saying that Abhaydatta didn't do a very good job of teaching them a rhyme of protection. He goes on gloating that even if he did do a good job it wouldn't do much against him, Surabhanu! ( Surabhanu is the person who stole the Conch) Surabhanu tells the girl to come here but when she resists an unseen force forces her to jerk forward. Anand suddenly feels something like a slimy tentacle passing over him. Suddenly a boy selling lozenges bursts into the compartment. Surabhanu is very surprised because he thinks that only the most accomplished magicians can break past his shields. So naturally he thinks that the boy is Abhaydatta in disguise. As he attacks the boy the lozenges fly out of his basket and start attacking Surabhanu sticking to his face and hands. During the battle Anand and the sweeper girl are able to slip away and the chapter ends with Anand worrying about Surabhanu chasing them.

One think i noticed about this book is that no chapter so far has been short. I especially like that about this author because I've read books with chapters a couple of pages long but with no apparent reason for it. The long chapters also let the author pack more plot into them as opposed to short meaningless chapters.