Eyes tell a lot of stories , stories of Love, Fear, Hope,Apprehension.Sometimes you can look into the soul of a person just by looking into his eyes, at other times you get bluffed by them, one might be holding back gallons of tears but wont give away a hint of that.
I have seen stories in peoples eyes, but there is one which keeps reverberating in my mind.
It happened on a train trip i made from mugalsarai to arrah. These are places in Bihar and U.P. I must have been 14-15 years old and was part of a wedding company.I was travelling in the General compartment( The train only had that, No A/C, Not even Sleeper).The train ambled along at a pace comparable to the pace of development of the tribals of orissa.
At each legitimate Station and twice as many illegitimate ones(Heard about Chain Pulling...? ) a sea of people came aboard.Most of them Labourers.
I was lying on the upper bench( I say bench because that's what it was, made of pure wood) when i encountered those eyes.
He must have been 12-13 years old, was of medium built and could have easily mingled with the crowd.But he possessed one thing that set him apart(atleast for me) from everyone else,,,, his eyes.
He was staring straight at me with his dull yellow eyes . Yellow because that's what keeps coming to my mind.What was the story behind them , Of sorrow , happiness, dreams, lost opportunities or of hope?
Were they the eyes that generalized the lives of Indians, more specifically the Indians living below the poverty line.The story that all of us know but conveniently forget .The story of a India which still lurks in the shadow of the Brilliance of India's Economic Growth.
I can quibble about whats wrong and what should be done .But does that make any difference unless i go and do something about it?
Meanwhile the boy keeps staring at me, maybe he senses something, but what? . I look at him now and then for the better part of 2 hours , he stares back without blinking even once.
The Trains comes to a halt , in the middle of nowhere, between obscurity and nothingness, a part of the Train's space is vacated by the crowd ,as one being, with those yellow eyes leading the way !!!!
I have seen stories in peoples eyes, but there is one which keeps reverberating in my mind.
It happened on a train trip i made from mugalsarai to arrah. These are places in Bihar and U.P. I must have been 14-15 years old and was part of a wedding company.I was travelling in the General compartment( The train only had that, No A/C, Not even Sleeper).The train ambled along at a pace comparable to the pace of development of the tribals of orissa.
At each legitimate Station and twice as many illegitimate ones(Heard about Chain Pulling...? ) a sea of people came aboard.Most of them Labourers.
I was lying on the upper bench( I say bench because that's what it was, made of pure wood) when i encountered those eyes.
He must have been 12-13 years old, was of medium built and could have easily mingled with the crowd.But he possessed one thing that set him apart(atleast for me) from everyone else,,,, his eyes.
He was staring straight at me with his dull yellow eyes . Yellow because that's what keeps coming to my mind.What was the story behind them , Of sorrow , happiness, dreams, lost opportunities or of hope?
Were they the eyes that generalized the lives of Indians, more specifically the Indians living below the poverty line.The story that all of us know but conveniently forget .The story of a India which still lurks in the shadow of the Brilliance of India's Economic Growth.
I can quibble about whats wrong and what should be done .But does that make any difference unless i go and do something about it?
Meanwhile the boy keeps staring at me, maybe he senses something, but what? . I look at him now and then for the better part of 2 hours , he stares back without blinking even once.
The Trains comes to a halt , in the middle of nowhere, between obscurity and nothingness, a part of the Train's space is vacated by the crowd ,as one being, with those yellow eyes leading the way !!!!
