Eyes That See - Short Story

 I'd like to study eyes, he would say. I remember reading somewhere that eyes are the windows to the soul. 

Arre wah, said his friend. You are a hopeless romantic. So you will be an opthamologist? 

Why not? said he. It's as good a profession as any to look into people's eyes, nay souls, right? Don't you see how difficult it is to meet another person's eyes? To look into their eyes directly? It's like invading their most personal of spaces. 

Really? said his friend. I never noticed but I think you are right. In fact I find it difficult to look into my eyes in the mirror even. 

See, said he. We don't even know the colour of the eyes of our closest people - family, friends, don't knowthe texture of their eyes - whether they are kindly, fearful, loving, blank, shut out, compassionate, pained. We are too scared to look into their eyes because we may find out something we do not want to know, something we are better off not knowing. It's easier to look beyond them, beside them and away from them. A whole lifetime I have done that - have not faced myself in the eyes of strangers and have avoided the world. 

Hmmm, I get what you are saying, said his friend. But it's a bit rude to look directly into somebody's eyes sin't it? 

It perhaps is said he, but there are times when it seems completely natural to do that. For example when you are fully convinced of what you are saying and doing. Then it is easy to look into the other person's eyes. When you have nothing to hide, it is easier to look into their eyes. Then I find myself actually searching for eyes that resonate with mine, with what I am saying. Sometimes even in a large audience I find that one pair of eyes that I am seeking out and that seek you. There is an energy to this whole eye business, perhaps the secret to our lives lies in the way we look at things, people, the way we seek out things and the way we avoid them. 

So what makes it easier to look into someone's eyes and what makes it difficult? asked the other. 

Hmm, said he. Good question. I find it easiest to look into the eyes of babies without fear. I also find it easiest to look into the eyes of people who smile compassionately, like old people. There's something there that I find easy to search and look for. Love, compassion, non judgment. Lack of fear.An openness. Something there that makes me smile inside. I'd seen it with some babies, not all. Some babies have the devil in their eyes. I have seen compassion in my grandmother's eyes - an all encompassing ocean that drowns you. 

Wow! It's quite interesting. Have you seen love in anyone's eyes? Like romantic love? Can you make that out? 

Yes, said he smiling. I think I have finally been able to see romantic love in a pair of eyes. I have seen greed, dependence, lust but have not seen love in anyone's eyes and I have always been searching for that. But then I saw this girl in the bazaar the other day when I was at Charminar. 

Aha, said the other. No wonder all this eye talk is going on. Out with it. 

I saw her eyes from far mind you said he. She was wearing a burqua, but those eyes cannot fool me. I have done enough experiments in eyes to know that the moment they saw me there was nothing but love in them. Just one glimpse. Serene, lucid, all encompassing, non judgmental, peaceful. Mind you, she was quite some distance away and I had no chance of going up close and look deep into her eyes. But what I saw was enough. But for only the first time in my life I felt we were alone in a crowd - she and me. She looked straight ahead, her pure, clean energy drawing me in, like the only eyes in the middle of the bazaar. All other eyes were impure with greed, fear, lust. Only these eyes were pure with love. Ah, what peace. I fell in love immediately, that instant, my friend. It is those eyes that I now seek every day of my existence, that will give me peace. 

Oh wow, said the other, that's a long story and a different one. But who knows, its the kind of a story that comes back sometimes. Good luck and keep your eyes open my friend. 

Not your eyes, said he. Keep your heart, your soul open. 

Time passed. He got his opthalmology seat. Life went on measuring itself in mundane achievements. He did not marry despite the many proposals hoping to find those eyes. Every patient he looked hopefully, every day he scanned the roads. But those eyes never came. He looked hopefully at everybody, at their energy, and then to decide whether he should risk looking into their eyes. He'd look into hundreds of eyes technically but he could find nothing. No peace, no love. 

And that's when the riot happened and he was called upon to see a patient who was not really an eye patient. he was an old man, the father of an old friend and he was unwell and needed a doctor to see him. so he went He checked in on him, saw his rheumy eyes that were full of fear and even some hope. He assured the old man that all was well and that he should rest, when he looked up and saw those eyes. His heart stopped. There was no mistaking those eyes. There was no way he would be mistaken, it was the exact same pair of eyes again. He asked his friend? 

Who is she? my cousin, Fatima. His heart leapt. He quietly asked his friend if he could make enquiries and is she was OK with the idea of marrying him. 

But bhai, this is the same pair of eyes you saw two years ago in a crowded market place and now you're sure its her? 

I am. It's the way she looks at me - like she knows me inside out. Please I beg of you, go and find out. 

The friend made enquiries and returned. 

She is eligible bhai - educated, beautiful, unmarried. And congenitally blind.