on" despite the pain he feels over his father's death. Tembu recognizes that "a living had to be made and all the responsibility now fell" on his shoulders.  While he is filled with sadness, Tembu resumes his father's duties and becomes the new night watchman.  He carries his father's axe to further enhance the sense of responsibility he feels as the family's primary earner.  

Both father and son display responsibility in how they set aside personal feelings in order to do their jobs.

Very early in the story, readers are told that Baldeo is a "watchman." We are also told that his watchman duties come with a "station." The station is nothing more than a small shack by the railroad tracks in a thick part of the jungle right before a tunnel. The following paragraph then gives readers a few more specifics about exactly what Baldeo's watchman duties are. His main job is to ensure that trains can safely pass through the tunnel. This means that Baldeo must inspect the tunnel for obstructions. Whether there is an obstruction or not, Baldeo has to use a manual signal to tell the trains that it is safe to go or whether they have to stop and wait. Baldeo must also make sure that the nighttime signal lamp stays burning.

Baldeo was responsible for signalling whether or not the tunnel was clear of obstruction, and his manual signal stood before the entrance. At night it was his duty to see that the lamp was burning, and that the overland mail passed through safely.

Baldeo does have other duties as a husband and father. It is up to him to protect his family and provide for them. This is one reason he has the job. It supplements the minor income he receives from operating his own small rice field.

Their small rice fields did not provide them with more than a bare
living and Baldeo considered himself lucky to have got the job of Khalasi at this small wayside signal stop.

Baldeo has some very important duties to perform. As a railway watchman, his job is to protect government property from thieves and intruders. He's a kind of security guard, with all the duties such a job normally entails. The railway is an eerie place at night, with all kinds of strange noises emanating from the darkness. Baldeo is genuinely in fear as he begins his new job. At the same time, he's also an incredibly brave man, as his subsequent encounter with the tiger clearly demonstrates. As well as his formal employment duties, Baldeo is forced to take on the role of protector of the village. There's a tiger on the loose; it's a man-eater and represents a threat to the villagers' safety. If Baldeo runs away, then he's exposing them to serious danger. But he stands and fights and does his duty, not just as a railway watchman, but also as a man.

The father, Baldeo, and his son, Tembu, both understand what they must do to provide for the family.

• Because the small rice field that Baldeo owns only provides his family with a meager living, both Baldeo and Tembu understand that Baldeo is fortunate to have the job of Khalasi in spite of the dangers that this position presents. While Baldeo goes out at night to confirm that the lamp is burning for the overland mail train that runs through a tunnel in the middle of a thick forest, Tembu sometimes sleeps at the station. Like his father, Tembu knows the danger that Baldeo faces each night.
  
• Both father and son are "unafraid of the darkness" of the forest. Baldeo goes out fearlessly to check on the lamp in the tunnel; later, after the tiger kills his father, Tembu goes out into the night to find his father. When he discovers his father's torn body, Tembu guards the body against the jackals and hyenas, "unafraid of the darkness" in which he waits for both the dawn and the next watchman. 
  
• Like his father, Tembu understands that the family must be taken care of, so he assumes thejob of Khalasi and performs the job that his father had. 

  "Life had to go on, and a living had to be made, and all the responsibility now fell on Tembu."

• Like his father, Tembu knows how to use the axe of his parent.

  "He had the axe with him, his father’s axe, and he now knew to use it."

Baldeo and Tembu are both courageous. Baldeo took up the job as a railway watchman in a dangerous part of their location. He heard stories about a marauding tiger, but he still reported to his night duty without fail. On the night of the attack, he stood his ground and defended himself against attacks by the tiger. Tembu knew how dangerous the job was, but he still took up his father’s post after he was killed by the tiger.

Baldeo and Tembu are both responsible individuals. They understood the economic importance of the job in spite of the dangerous working conditions. The rice farms barely sustained their family and the situation forced Baldeo and later Tembu to take up the job as railway watchmen.

I think that the tiger is the real tiger in "The Tiger in the Tunnel."

A case could be made that as Baldeo approaches his adversary, he might display some qualities that resemble those of a tiger. Upon entering the top of the cutting, Baldeo walks as cautiously as a knowledgeable predator. Like the tiger, he is very confident of his ability to face down wild animals in the jungle. Baldeo "prided himself in his skill" in using his axe. With a kill list that includes a young boar, Baldeo believes he is a talented hunter.

However, when Baldeo encounters the tiger, it is clear that he, Baldeo, is the hunted. Baldeo is no match for the tiger, who has "preyed" on the men in the jungle for years. The tiger is a "great brute." At the moment of confrontation, his quick and focused movements cannot be avoided. "Flight was useless" for Baldeo, a description that proves his inability to "out-tiger" the tiger.

Baldeo puts up a good fight. He is able to land an agonizing wound on the tiger. However, the real tiger in the story is the tiger himself. He is the one who successfully hunts down Baldeo, "bringing him down and tearing at his broken body."

Baldeo's sense of honor is integral to the story.  Baldeo has to take his extra job as a watchman to supplement the family's income.  He is not necessarily excited or passionate to be a watchman. Yet, his dedication to his family is what compels him to undertake the second job.  His courage is evident in how he faces the possibility of wild animals and challenges from the wilderness without fear.  He realizes that there are threats, dangerous and full of peril.  Yet, he does not waver from what he has to do in terms of carrying out his duty, reflective of his courageous condition.  He looks out for his son on that fateful night, recognizing his responsibility as a father.  He tells Tembu to stay in the hut where it is warmer, as opposed to going out in the darkness.  Baldeo is a responsible night watchman, as he does not fail to carry out his duty to light the lamp.  Even when he is attacked by the tiger, Baldeo displays responsibility by not running for cover, but rather facing down what he knows he must.  The driving force of the story is to highlight how Baldeo's courage, dedication, and sense of responsibility prove to be an example.  This is seen when Tembu recognizes what he must do in resuming the job that his father so valiantly saw through to his own death.

In the short story "The Tiger in the Tunnel" by Ruskin Bond, Baldeo is a poor man who supplements the meager income from his paddy farm by working for the railroad. He is a watchman for the railroad, and his job is to check that there are no obstructions on the track and then to flag trains safely through a long tunnel. Baldeo does this job every night regardless of the weather or the danger from ravenous jungle animals.

Baldeo lives in a hut about three miles from the railroad tunnel where he works. His family consists of his wife, his daughter, and a 12-year-old son named Thembu. To protect himself on the long dark walk to the tunnel and at the tunnel entrance, Baldeo carries a sharp axe. In the past, he has used the axe to kill a large boar.

As the story opens, it is a cold evening and Baldeo is preparing to leave for his work at the railroad. His son wants to come with him, but Baldeo does not agree because he does not want to expose his son to the night chill. Baldeo struggles to get up and then sets off on the long walk alone. Although he is aware of the wild animals stalking prey in the jungle, he has never encountered them. This night, he hears an unusual sound in the distance. Soon a tiger approaches and attacks Baldeo. Although Baldeo fights valiantly and wounds the tiger, the tiger eventually kills him. Because the tiger is wounded, though, it does not notice the train and gets hit and killed by it.

Thembu finds his father's body near the tunnel, and his family mourns. Thembu then takes over his father's job of signaling the trains, and he is proud to inherit the axe and carry on his father's work.