Reading "after being cheated, his eyes opened", Samar thinks his eyes were literally physically…
Reading "after being cheated, his eyes opened", Samar thinks his eyes were literally physically closed and have now opened. His sister says the meaning here is different. Who is right?
Who do you think is right? Pick one.
The answer: His sister is right, it means realising the truth
Why
Samar is reading the sentence word-for-word in its literal sense, which is usually the right approach. But 'आँखें खुलना' (eyes opening) is a Hindi idiom (मुहावरा), and idioms carry a meaning entirely different from what their words literally say — here it means 'to realise the truth' or 'to come to one's senses', nothing to do with physical eyes. After being cheated, someone's 'आँखें खुलना' means they have now understood reality, which they hadn't before. Test it: saying his eyes stayed shut in the same context would also mean he never grasped the truth — it's not about the physical state of his eyes. His sister is right: 'आँखें खुलना' is an idiom meaning realising the truth or a deception — it isn't read in its literal, word-for-word sense.
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