How do your eyes Look?

"When eyes talk to eyes

The entire world stands still."

So wrote a young poet named Ajey Pai K last year.

In fact, many poets and singers have eulogised eyes as being captivating and mesmerising.

My world stood still for a while when I was asked “Tell us how do your eyes look?” by a young gent.

Pretty simple question, is it not? It depends on who asks you and the challenge it poses in framing your response.

I was thanking the group of visually impaired persons at the Salvation Army Hostel for Blind after they sang and greeted me for my birthday today.

Probably curiosity got the better of this young person to ask me what he did and I realised my response was nothing but clumsy.

As a family we decided to visit this Salvation Army Hostel for Blind to observe my birthday.  A call to our grocer ensured essentials be packed in a jiffy and placed in our car. We reached the venue effortlessly thanks to Google Maps.

We thought, perhaps we will give the items and leave. Capt. Nirmala, the lady-in-charge, asked Nazarene what the purpose of our visit was earlier in the day, so when we reached, we were told all the inmates were waiting to interact with us.

We found them all sitting quietly in the foyer.  Capt. Suhas, the chaplain, introduced us and the group sang a song of Blessings after which Capt.  Suhas prayed for all of us. We found that Capt. Nirmala and her team were very sincere in their efforts to keep the inmates comfortable. However, they have limited resources and will be  happy to receive spontaneous  unconditional  support  which can be in the form of food stuff, linen, clothes or beds.

As we left the place Nazarene, my wife, remarked that it is so easy to reach out and touch the lives of those who are less privileged than us. Esther and Rakshan, our children, were ideating on how to sustain such initiatives.

I am grateful to God for the gift of sight and immense possibilities of that gift for those who are endowed with it.  In fact the question has made me reflect over the evening on the many blessings I have since my birth.

I was not inclined to take pictures or the proverbial selfies as I knew I could never show the picture these gents.  I am using my words to share my insights I received from those who are visually impaired.

July 23, 2016