45 Seconds

          He sat in the backseat of the car. The car was being driven by his father. His mother sat in the passenger seat. They were passing through a busy road. He was looking outside at the world which was passing by as the wheels of the car rotated. Shops, strangers, vehicles and environment he had only a visual connection with were included in this world. Suddenly the world took a pause as the car came to a stop. He noticed they reached a red light. There were many vehicles standing beside them. It was 45 seconds until the lights turn green.

          He looked out through the left window and saw the most beautiful vista his eyes had ever come across. He saw her. She was sitting in the backseat of the car. A man and a woman were sitting in front, probably her parents. But he did not notice anything except her. It was love at first sight, the kind of love he never believed in until then. It was the kind of love he had only heard about in tales, watched in movies and read about in books.

          40 sec – She turned towards him. Their eyes met and his heart skipped a beat. He was continuously staring at her. For a moment he felt shy as if she had caught him naked. Well, at that moment he was emotionally naked because he reflected his emotions through his eyes and the emotions could only be named as love.

          35 sec – She was still looking towards him. Maybe she too felt the same way. Only thinking about this possibility lifted his spirits. He thought he saw a tinge of a smile, the most beautiful smile he had ever seen, run through her lips. She was smiling but her smile reflected the joy in his heart.

          30 sec – She pulled back a strand of hair behind her ear. He shifted in his seat and tried to come as close to her as he could. There were only two laminated glass windows and two feet of polluted hot air between them yet the distance between them seemed to be of miles and miles. He was so close to her yet so far.

          25 sec – He felt a sudden urge to talk to her. But he knew it would be stupid to do so. What could he do? She was still having that perfect smile on her lips and her eyes were still towards him. If he were asked to define those eyes he would have described them as black holes for he was drawn towards them with a force stronger than gravity. It was as if those two brown eyes were his salvation. And the way she looked at him lovingly, he knew her eyes spoke the words she couldn’t.

          20 sec – Her eyes expressed love, the feeling which hadn’t touched him until he had seen her. He knew there was something divine between them, something that couldn’t be explained in simple words but would need volumes of poetic expressions to be summarised in conclusions yet wouldn’t get proper justice.

          15 sec – In the past 30 seconds he had realised that all his past life was just a mirage and she was his reality. He had been just a traveller journeying through the path of life to attain his destination. At that moment his destination sat two feet from him but he couldn’t even stretch his arms and touch her.

          10 sec – Surreal feelings of love had clouded the bright sun of reality. But he soon realised that the thing his heart was aching for was too far from his reach. His heart began descending back to the earth from which it was lifted up to the sky at the first sight of her.

          5 sec – As the lights turned yellow and the engines started purring again he knew that he might never see her again. He knew their story would remain unfinished and his questions unanswered yet he smiled. He smiled because though the most beautiful 45 seconds of his life were coming to an end, he was happy that he could live them. He was happy that he turned left at the signal and not right. He was happy he could spend at least 45 seconds of his life with her. He was happy because he had started believing in love and it is when you start believing in love that you start living.

          The lights turned green. The vehicles started to move. Her car took a right turn ahead and his went straight. He took a last glimpse at her and sighed as 45 seconds of eternal bliss and ecstasy came to an end. A lot had happened in those 45 seconds. The secrets of love and life had been revealed to him through her eyes. He had seen love in her eyes for him. He had conversed with her through the unspoken language of eyes. Her eyes, he would never forget them. They were the most beautiful set of eyes he had ever seen or would ever see.

***

          The car stopped in front of a large building. A guard came and opened the car door for her. She stepped down and took out a walking stick with her in her right hand. The guard blocked his eyes from the sun. Many people around wore sunglasses. It was very bright but it didn’t bother her. She was blind.