Blue Eyes

First Published on April 9th, 2013.  I am republishing the story.  Simply because I myself had the urge to look at his image today......

His eyes were so captivating!!

The flash from my camera makes his wrist glow.  At first it seemed to me that that it made the light bulb around his neck light up!! Cadiz, Spain. 

It was a very small exhibition at the Contemporary Art Museum.  Literally one large room.  I walked in, just out of curiosity.

The sounds from the outside city calmed down.  The security guard told me it was free.  

After the first two photographs that I looked it, this one caught my eye.  So much so that a deep-sigh left me, as if it had been stuck in my chest for a while.  I looked at a couple in the room and nodded my head towards the photograph.  

They thought I was crazy.  

They continued to the other end of the exhibition.  

I stared at it for five to ten minutes.  From several angles.

Then I went up close to read about it.  It was done by an artist called 'something' Edwards.  I apologize, but when I took the picture I was not thinking of putting it on the blog. I just wanted to keep it as a Souvenir, so I did not memorize the name of the artist.

Guess what?  The picture was taken in India.

I wonder if the blue eyes were a reflection of the lights around, or due to the camera's flash.  But the eyes must have been very light to have reflected back with that color.  Or may be he was really blue eyed.  I have seen many children with hazel, amber, or even blue eyes in India.  Those with tanned skin color, as opposed to lighter skin color, look more attractive.  

When I showed the picture to my friend on my camera's viewer, he asked, 'is his ready for boxing?"

"Nope--he is a poor boy, and is wearing and oversized underwear.  If you look closely it has a tear on its left side.  He might be the light boy, boys who set up lights in a market or a wedding before the evening.'

I remember a line from E. M. Forester's 'A Passage to India', when he refers to a very attractive servant in a King's court--'that is how sometimes nature rebels to show human beings that it cares little for its categories and classes.'

This boy was so beautiful, and looked so real that I felt he had started to breathe under my gaze.  It got a bit scary to stare into his 'jheel si nili aakhen' (deep like a blue lake--eyes) and I walked away.  

But I returned.  And saw the couple I had nodded to earlier-- staring it with the same intent as I had done.  I nodded again behind their backs!! 

We didn't speak the same language but our hearts acknowledged the intensity of the picture. 

Art -- a great unifier.