Eyes

Ishika stopped scribbling in her notebook when her mom called her name for the third time. Ishika loved writing and was busy scribbling in her notebook but her mom wanted her to get ready as they had to go to a pre-wedding ceremony of their neighbor. Ishika finally stood up and got ready. She was wearing a blue and peach coloured knee length frock with a peach colored leggings. As they entered their neighbor's house Ishika went to sit with her other friends and her mom went to help the other ladies with pre-wedding rituals preparation.

Ishika's neighbor Naina was getting married. Naina's house was packed with all her relatives. Ishika identified a few of them. Ishika identified Naina's maternal grandmother and smiled at her. Grandmother also smiled at her and asked her how was her study going. Ishika was 15 years old and was studying in school. Ishika replied that her studies were going good. Grandmother told an aunty sitting beside her that Ishika and Sourabh are of same age. Just then a boy around 15 but who looked no less than 18 years old entered the room. He was wearing a blue shirt with horizontal white stripes on it. He sat with grandmother. Grandmother told him that Naina's neighbor Ishika and he was of same age. Ishika understood that he was Naina's maternal cousin.

Sourabh looked at Ishika. Ishika being an awkward introvert didn't know if she should smile at him or not. She smiled a bit but when he didn't respond she made her face normal again and when she was doing that Sourabh also smiled a bit but then he also stopped smiling. She understood that she wasn't the only weird person in the world. He was also like her. Now and then they found themselves looking at each other. It wasn't that they smiled at each other or got lost in each other. In fact they were staring at each other in a weird or angry way. Ishika was irritated as she couldn't find out why she was looking at him without reason. She was not one of those girls who had crush on every other day. Also, she wasn't one of those girls who believed in love at first sight or fairy tale love.

After the rituals were over snacks and biscuits were given to everyone. Ishika was sitting with her friend and Sourabh was sitting just opposite her on the sofa. She decided not to look at him. After finishing the snacks her friend told her that she was still hungry. Her friend told her that she was feeling shy as no one was opening their biscuit packet. Just then they heard a sound of packet of biscuit getting torn. Sourabh tore the packet and started eating the biscuits. Ishika and her friend smiled at each other and her friend tore the packet too. Ishika understood that he was shy but he was a foodaholic too. Ishika's mother waved at her and called her to sit outside with her. As Ishika stood up her eyes met Sourabh's eyes. He stopped his hand holding the biscuit just near his mouth. It was as if the time has stopped for both of them. They had been transported into a different world. Her friend poked her and she suddenly came out of the ocean of his eyes. She told her that her mom was calling them out. Her friend stood up and they went outside. Ishika didn't know what had happened just a few moments ago. Although the eyelock lasted just for few microseconds but it felt that she was lost for an eternity. At that age, she didn't even know that what love was or what she felt was love or not. But one thing about which she was sure was that it felt as if they knew each other from a long time. Some bonds are very special. Just one moment is enough to make the two people feel that they are made for each other. These kind of people are true soul mates.

Ishika got ready for Naina's wedding. She was wearing a beautiful long bottle green gown. She took more time than usually she used to take to get ready. They reached the venue. Ishika kept looking for Sourabh. She couldn't find him anywhere. At last, she found him. But she couldn't look at him properly as there were many relatives. One thing she remembered was that he was wearing a yellow shirt with black coat and jeans. She found a guy handsome for the first time in her life.

Ishika was a resident of Pune where as Sourabh was from Mumbai. She knew that she won't be able to meet him after the reception. She prayed to God to give her any hint. She prayed that as soon as she enters reception venue if she got to see him she would understand it as a sign from God. She knew that it would be impossible as there will be many relatives and she would find a reason to forget him. But to her surprise as soon as her family entered the venue she saw Sourabh and his father walking towards them. They greeted each other. He bowed down to touch Ishika's parent's feet. And they went outside as they had some work. Ishika was shocked. God has given her a hint. Reception got over. Sourabh returned to Mumbai.

Ishika didn't have his number or any other way to talk to him. Of course she could have sent him friend request on Fb or follow request on Instagram. But her so called shyness or ego stopped her from doing that. She stalked all his social media profiles. She figured out that he loved wearing black and blue clothes. She knew who his favorite sports players were. Some of them became her favorite too. She found out that he was multi-talented. He was a scholar. He was good at all sports, be it cricket, football or swimming. He could play many musical instruments. She felt sometimes that he was far better than her. She got to meet him once or twice in a year. They would just get to see each other and they couldn't talk much. Once they got to talk and when he went there was this beautiful smile on his face and he was waving his hand at her. Ishika felt that the beautiful bond between them was alive even when they met once or twice in year. There was still that spark that they felt when their eyes had met for the first time. When she told her friend and cousin about him they were shocked. First to know that someone like Ishika was in love and second to know that how weird her story was. How can someone love like that and wait like that in today's era. Just meeting once or twice in a year and still loving the person is something which nowadays is very rare.

Whenever she used to miss him a lot somehow she got to see him. Either he will come or either she would get to see his photo on his mom's Fb account or on Naina's Instagram status. Her board exams came and she worked hard as she knew he would definitely score good marks. She wanted to score the same marks like him. They both scored same marks and got admission into good colleges. She had even fasted for him when his entrance exam was there. She sometimes felt that what if he didn't feel like the way she did. But then something would happen and her faith will become stronger again. Somehow every song he used to write or sing was related to eyes. Her brain told her that it was just a coincidence but her heart would jump with happiness. She even wrote some poems for him. No one knew who these poems were for. Sometimes she would find some girls writing flirtatious comments on his post and she would get angry.

Five years went in this way but there was nothing much more than few meetings. She decided to do something. She stalked his profile and found that he had his account on a platform where user can send anonymous message. She found the way and send him a poem expressing her feelings. She especially mentioned eyes in her poem so that if he felt in the same way then he would understand that she was messaging otherwise if he doesn't understand then she will not message him again. To her shock an anonymous message came on her account which read - "Was that you who messaged the poem Ishika? "She didn't know how to react. What if he understood that it was her because he knew she was a poet but didn't have the same feelings for her. When she didn't reply another message came. There were the lyrics of a song that included love as well as eyes. She understood his answer. She was crying with joy. She replied that yes she was the one who had messaged him. He messaged her asking her to send her number. She sent it. He called her instantly. She picked up and said "Hello". She could hear the sobbing from the other side. She was happy to know that he was equally happy and overwhelmed. He said that he was dying to hear her voice. He was shocked when he got to know that she loves him too. They both expressed their feelings to each other on the phone once again. They started talking to each other on daily basis. They added each other as friends on social media platforms. After completing graduation Sourabh became more open about them. He changed his relationship status to committed on Fb. He introduced her to his parents and friends. She did the same. Their families were also happy as they were just perfect for each other. He would now sing songs for her and she would write poems for him on a daily basis. She had started writing articles for newspapers. Sourabh got a job in a good firm and after sometime he got his first opportunity to release his song by a music company as they had seen some of his videos online. His song became an instant hit. Ishika wanted to study further. They decided to marry after she completes her post-doctorate.

Once they were sitting in their car looking at the sunset recalling how their love story has unfolded. Their story was really like one of those fairy tales. Ishika said that she would have never believed in love at first sight if she wouldn't have met him. She said "Once my friend had asked me that how did I know he is the one and how do I know that if he is a good person or not. To which I had replied that his eyes are the answer. He may not say anything and he may not show any expressions but his eyes speaks everything. A person's eyes reveal a lot about him than anything else. Your eyes are the most beautiful thing in the world. I can get lost in them for infinity." Sourabh smiled. He said "May be your eyes recited your poems and my eyes sang the songs and only we understood it. Every time I meet you I feel that we have been together for a long time even when we were far away from each other we were always close to each other." "Off course and I promise I will always be around you even if I am not there." She replied.

Finally, she completed her degree and got a job. Their marriage date got fixed. She wrote a book on their love story but no publishing house had liked the manuscript yet. She got an assignment for which she had to go to the USA for three days. Marriage was one month after that. Her family told her not to go. But Sourabh encouraged and he convinced everyone so that she could go. He was always very supportive and helpful. They all went to the airport to drop her. She met each one of them and at last she looked at Sourabh. Their eyes got locked. And they started talking to each other through eyes. His eyes wished for her safe journey. She went to USA. Three days passed. Sourabh was going to pick her up from the airport. He sat in his car and went to airport. On the way, he got a call from his mother. He stopped the car and picked the call. Her mother was crying on the phone. She said that the news channel showed that the flight from which Ishika was flying got crashed and all the passengers died. Sourabh got blank. He couldn't reply. He couldn't believe what had happened. The whole family reached there. Airport authorities told them that no one who boarded the flight was alive. Everyone died. You will get the bodies tomorrow. They all started crying. He recalled each word that she had said. He screamed that you had promised to stay with me forever. Now he understood what she had said accidentally. She had said that she would be around even she was gone. He felt like something has died inside him. They started walking towards exit. Someone called Sourabh from behind. He saw Ishika running towards them. They all were shocked. She came and hugged everyone. She said "Sorry for all the havoc. Actually I came from another flight. I met an owner of a leading publishing house at the airport. He told me that he read my articles in newspaper and really liked them and if I want to publish any book written by me then I should contact them. I told him that I do want to publish a book. He said he is going for an important event today and his flight was after 3 hours. He would not return from the event for at least one month. So if I want my book to get published than I should give him a manuscript now so that if he likes it he would sign a contract now only then tell his publishing house to start the printing process. I couldn't refuse such an offer and decided to stay there and signed the contract as he liked it. I forgot to message you all in excitement. When I sat in the flight I decided to call you but my phone's battery was down as I forgot to charge my phone." Sourabh got angry. He said that he really wants to kill her for her carelessness. And then started crying. Ishika consoled him and told him that tears don't look good in his eyes. He said "Don't forget to add today's incident as a chapter in your book. And what is the title of our love story?"

She replied "The title is eyes."