The connection seemed to be instant. Leena had been waiting in the queue for the past thirty minutes to enter the Sanctum Sanctorum of Harmandir Sahib at Amritsar. Suddenly, someone stepped on her foot, making her whimper. The twenty-something Sikh boy turned towards her and asked for forgiveness with folded hands. As their gaze met, Leena stood transfixed, looking intently into his deep black eyes. “Why did those unfamiliar eyes look familiar? Why did they seem to be speaking a thousand words, though for a while, and sent her heart racing?”
That night, Leena could not sleep. That pair of speaking eyes haunted her to no end. She couldn’t decipher why she had felt a surreal affinity with the boy’s soul through the windows of his eyes. She desperately wished to meet him again to calm the storm that had been blowing inside since that day. Her prayers were answered soon when a chance meeting at a social gathering brought them face to face with each other. The moment he saw Leena, he approached her and bent down to touch her feet like a son seeking his mother’s blessings. Leena held him up by his arms and impulsively took him in a tight embrace. A surge of emotions enveloped her entire being. A steady stream of silent tears, which she wiped discreetly, trickled down her cheeks. After a good ten seconds, she loosened up and apologized to the young man for her impulsive behaviour. Her mind was in turmoil again. Why did a total stranger stir within her maternal emotions, a strange sensation of love, an unexplained connect?
She got the answer soon. A few days later, she visited the ophthalmology wing of Karuna Multi-Speciality Hospital, where her only son had pledged his eyes before he breathed his last, after a tragic road accident, leaving behind a single grieving mother. There he was again, the mystery boy, who had come visiting the eye centre for a routine check-up. He greeted Leena with folded hands while Dr. Vibhor, the eye surgeon, looked on. “How do you know this boy?” the doctor asked Leena. His expressions changed from curiosity to incredulity as Leena narrated her mental state on meeting the boy in the past few days. It was then that the doctor revealed that her son was still watching her, through Meet, the hitherto stranger and recipient of her son’s eyes. Time froze for both Meet and Leena as they stood still, processing the reality of the revelation. What followed was a heart-stopping moment as they hugged each other and cried their hearts out, unable to fathom the reason.
Meet is no longer an orphan. Leena is no longer single. The affinity of unfamiliar eyes has transformed into a heart-warming mother-son relationship, and a bond to last a lifetime.
Manpreet Chadha
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