Deeper than the Deepest Ocean

What attracts you most to a woman?

For a guy who is hypnotized  by even the minutest details of a woman, like her tiny strand of hair or her nail this would seem like a difficult question. But for a popular, 70 year young journalist Khushwant Singh, this would be a cake walk.

A group of young friends relaxing in a Goan lounge put this question on Khushwant Singh’s platter. Perhaps it was quite natural for them to arrive at a conclusion that this question deserved to be answered, only by the Sardarji. Its “Her Eyes” replied an unperplexed Khushwant Singh.

He had remembered a woman’s conversation with her lover in an English poem:” I would like to drown you in my eyes”.

Adding to what was penned down in an old column of his; he recalled Servantes quoting “The silent tongues of love” and wailed at the fact that the Indian writers never compared a woman’s eyes to an ocean, sea or a vast lake.

This might look true to a certain extent. Sanskrit literature has mostly compared a woman’s eyes to a lotus and a pair of “Harini’s Eyes”. ” Her eyes as timid as a fearful deer”, Kamala, Kamalakshi, Vanajakshi, Neerajakshi, Jalajakshi have been the usual adjectives.

Khushwant Singh’s statement that the Indian writers have never compared a woman’s eyes to an ocean immediately reminded me of “The beauty of her eyes is deeper than the deepest ocean” written by KSN. Like a deluge of memories it also reminded me of a few lines from GSS’s Poem “In your Eyes”.

“What’s hidden in this beautiful ocean eyes? I wondered!

Blind was I, staring at it!!

I sank to an endless bottom,

Was washed ashore!!!

I sighed,

What lied at the bottom of those deep ocean eyes? I do not know

When “Searching the pearls hidden deep in the ocean eyes of a woman” has been the most sought after theme in the poems, citing such beautiful examples is not a very difficult job.

They have found a spark, the serenity of an ocean in a woman’s eyes. There have been people like Milton who have also found heaven.

Poet Adiga’s writing

“Your eyes, your eyes

How beautiful!

It’s……………………..”

Is not an exaggeration after all.

Rare it has been for our poets to have escaped those haunting eyes. If not lankesh would not have written

“Don’t haunt me Saroja,

Wherever I go,

Don’t haunt me,

With those eyes of yours”

Who wouldn’t like those bright eyes, the eyes that capture you wholly and drown you sweetly?

No wonder our lyricists have penned such beautiful lines like

“In the mirror of your eyes, I found myself”

“You sent a poem written through your eyes”

This is the power of the eyes. The essence of all our poems is this: “Eyes Speak”.  This is what Servantes has termed as” The silent tongues of love”. If you have seen the “Sorrow filled eyes of Adelaquesta, and the extreme soul stirring sadness” in the movie “Passage” you would believe me more.

How a pair of eyes can reflect the joy and sorrow of the whole world!!!

 Until recently I had believed that the feet of a dancer were her biggest possession. But a recent dance performance changed my perception: For a true dancer, a pair of eyes is her soul.

But to my dismay, even after years of marriage, insensitive and unromantic men of India fail to recognize the beauty of their partners’ eyes.  However I feel that our Muslim brothers are better in that way. Perhaps, their curiosity is due to the inevitability of only seeing those eyes of a woman, covered with a burkha.

When I was studying in channapatna I remember making fun of my male friends who applied Kajal to their eyes. Coming from a group which believed that” the beauty of a man is only defined by his nose”, my attitude towards them was predictable.

A scene from the movie “Passage” where Dr Aziz carefully applies Kajal standing in front of the mirror brought me happiness, when it had been long, since I saw men wearing kajal in bangalore.

But I have always doubted the poets who describe the eyes as the nature’s most beautiful element. “Black eyes, blue eyes, Lotus eyes” so many types of eyes.  A pair of eyes with more than the usual amount of Kajal always looked black; an eyebrow shaped to perfection brought out Meenakshi. These have been my complaints when thinking of the eyes that haunt me!! I would also add “Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder” to this dictionary of mine.

My worry seems illogical when I realize that the element which perceives them is also a pair of eyes. Perhaps that’s why I am not cynical about them even though I see the whole world pessimistically.

Do you know why?

When you think of the lovely eyes ,  that can increase your heart beat, can induce a new found enthusiasm in you, can bring out the deepest of emotions, can make you forget your existence for a moment, I realize that even the slightest pain in them can give you nightmares. These powerful eyes can leave you speechless and dumbfounded.

Why would I get angry with them, how could I be cynical about them. That is when I remember

Kambara’s poem

“These two eyes are incapable of capturing your moonlit smile”.

“Seeing your sparkling eyes, I remember the morning dew”

Before I end this passionate never ending saga I want you, the readers to understand the importance of your eyes. What would always keep your soul mates young and alive even in your old age? 

My favourite poet -dramatist Shakespeare says

Come, fair friend,

you never can

be old

for as you were

when first your

eyes eyed

Such is your beauty still