I always had an attraction towards people's eyes. I would always try to figure out what their eyes are saying. Eyes speak louder than people's actions. For me, it showed who the person really was, and what they feel.

Let me explain. 

Take Karan's eyes for example - dark brown , like the dark rocks at the bottom of the ocean. His eyes show his playfulness, his kindness and most importantly his laid-back attitude. The twinkle that appears in his eyes enhance the happiness he brings into any room he walks in. His eyes are a reflection of his carefree childhood in his hometown, where he spent summer afternoons plucking mangoes from his grandfather's orchard, and saw his mom and grandma make pickles out of the same mangoes. His eyes show the happiness of sneakily taking 2 mangoes, 1 for him and another for his sister,  from the mango basket kept specially for the pickles, running to their small room, and hiding behind the big dresser and enjoying the fruit of the season, its juice  from their little fingers onto their clothes. 

Ashley - light blue-grey eyes, like the horizon where the sky meets the ocean, where the night moon meets the waves. Her eyes show her tiredness - the reality of having 2 kids, with an uncooperative partner and a family that was always against her decision to get married to said partner. There is a hint of hope showing up in her eyes every now and then in the past couple of days - she and her partner are taking couple's therapy , and as hopeful it makes her,  it also leaves her with the daunting task of finding a faithful and trust-worthy nanny for her kids. For every one step she was taking forward, it felt like life was setting her 2 steps back. 

Dori - Forest green eyes , that sometimes turn olive green when she is out in the sun too much. Her eyes are full - just like the forest they are the colour of - full of warmth and determination, abundance and dedication. Her eyes show her seriousness to work way harder than others, to get the life she yearned for as a kid, growing up in the small home her parents could afford on the meagre salary they got. Her eyes showed her struggle to get her parents the luxurious house they are living in now. Her eyes show the late nights she has put into getting where she is , and the determination that she would not stop to get what she wants; as for too long she lived behind failed dreams and unfulfilled wishes. Her eyes showed abundance - the lack of which pushed her towards toiling from a young age. She feels like its her duty to help others get out of poverty, and she makes sure she uses her hard earned money to help them do so. 

But then , then there's Peeli. Her eyes, I haven't been able to figure out her eyes yet. 

Peeli - Her eyes are the darkest shade of brown I have seen, darker than Karan's. At first I thought they were black, and I became super excited to finally see black eyes due to their rarity, but then she was facing the sun once and her eyes shown in all their glory. Her eyes had a black center , and a black outline, and in between them, was a rich dark brown colour.  In that moment, when she was facing the sun when we were out on a picnic, it didn't feel like the Sun was blessing her with his rays; it felt like she was acknowledging the Sun, allowing him to light her eyes up in all her glory. That was a power move I had not witnessed before, and since then I have been trying to figure her eyes out. 

Peeli - Her eyes were like the colour of Mother Earth after the rains.They held a calmness, a coolness, a combination that you find only near the seas and oceans - the combination of coconuts and water. Her eyes depicted sweetness - the kind that makes you feel calm after a tiring day, the kind that is sweet but not overly so, the kind that is natural - the kind that you get from drinking coconut water after a tiring day trying to catch fishes to sell them early tomorrow morning. Her eyes held a passion, a relentless drive. But there was something else in them. Something I couldn't quite figure out. This something made her look like she had the power to heal your soul, and at the same time, this something made her look like she could destroy your heart in a snap. 

I had been trying to figure out what this something was since months. And I still hadn't figured it out until one of our last lunches. 

Ashley was freaking out about the deadline of the project we were working on. Even though I can tell you in detail how brutally important it was for us to meet this deadline and how much it would cost us in case we don't meet it, and the domino effect it might have on the subsequent researches that have been lined up depending on the hope that our project pulls off, I will spare you the details. 

Ashley was freaking out; Karan was trying his best to calm down the situation by being the joker of the group, while I was focused only on the boring salad I was eating for lunch. 

Ashley snapped as politely as possible, "Aren't you worried about not pulling off this project? You don't seem worried even a little about the fact that we might not pull it off! Have you even thought what will happen if we don't pull this off?! WHY AREN'T YOU WORRIED!" 

Dori added, "She is right guys, we will be in literal hell if we don't pull it off!"

The moment that followed was the quietest and somehow the scariest moment that passed between us. The absolute disaster of us failing our project had dawned upon us. And somehow, all of our heads turned to look at the one person who might just be able to pull us towards victory. Our project manager - Peeli. 

Wiping her mouth with the napkin, an aura of calmness was surrounding her, like it always does. 

The words that came out of her mouth almost turned us into statues.

"I have been through hell , and I have come back. 

Believe me, this isn't hell.

It's not even close. 

So don't worry, we will pull this off."

The way she said, "I have been through hell , and I have come back," was the most nonchalant way I would expect anyone to say something like that. 

And yet, it was with utmost seriousness and respect that we simply accepted that she had been through hell. Not in the poetic sense of way, but in the literal  sense.

And in that moment, I finally understood that something in her eyes. 

That something in her eyes was what had seen hell. 

That something in her eyes had seen what hell looks like.

That something, was the part of her, before she went through hell. 

And that something was the same part of her that helped her get through hell and come back.

And when she said that 'we will pull this off,' I believed her. 

How can you not believe in someone, who had already seen hell, been through it, and has come back?

_______

EVER BEEN FASCINATED BY SOMEONE'S EYES? What fascinated you about them ? Let me know!

~SALONI SHARMA.