For Your Eyes Only

For the crimes of the eyes, the heart paid the price.

For the crimes of the eyes, many wished they were blind.

From the crimes of the eyes, life taught “living.”

Whether the world outside is real or a simulation is uncertain.

But the world inside the head is undeniably perception.

An image received upside down by the retina, carried through rods and cones to the brain at unimaginable speed, might just be the root of every problem at hand.

Eyes let us see.

And that itself is the core problem.

Because when one sees, one compares.

When one does not see, one does not compare.

Let us look through a few moments.

Take the 2019 run-out of MS Dhoni.Or Rohit Sharma stepping out to Glenn Maxwell in the 9.5 over of 2023. Everyone who witnessed those tears cried too. Even today, memes roam around with the line: “Khada hoon aaj bhi wahi.”

If only one could unsee certain moments, one would.

When eyes see, eyes compare.

Comparison creates relativity - either inferiority or superiority.

Recall the girl or boy you had a crush on in the first week of college. Then recall who they eventually ended up dating. That sudden sparkle in someone’s eyes you wished was for you but was not. It hurts, doesn’t it?

One image of someone creates infinite imagination in the brain.

And what does the brain do?

It carries those images to the heart.

And what does the heart do?

It attaches.

That is where the downward spiral begins.

We all know how most such stories end. Sometimes one feels like donating their eyes after witnessing endless “nibba-nibbi” shit around. Yet even then, the eyes continue fooling the heart.

When eyes see, eyes analyse.

Analysis brings rationality.

The moment you realize that every individual out there is solving a different equation of life, yet education keeps forcing standard procedures upon uniquely different minds - that is when life begins teaching in its own way.

The eyes of a friend whose paper did not go well.

The final call someone made to their parents without knowing it would be the last.

The casual glance of an elderly person you assumed would live longer.

The final eye contact with someone who once mattered the most, but is no longer around.

When eyes see, they see through people.

They detect lies. They detect truth.

When you receive manufactured attention driven purely by interest, the eyes notice it immediately. The brain says no, but the heart whispers, “One last time and not next time.”

Eyes see the value tag others attach to you.

When eyes see, they calculate.

Ask a dark-skinned man or an overweight woman in India what society sees in them. Unless backed by status, money, or achievement, many are made to feel like losers born to live lives never fully lived.

And then comes another question - one often faced by those considered beautiful:

“How do you know someone loves you for who you are, and not your beauty?”

The curse of beauty is permanent doubt.

When eyes see, they also bring hope.

The surprise visit of a family member.

A friend suddenly appearing at the basketball court or cricket nets.

For 17 years, the eyes of Virat Kohli carried hope. Eyes are testimonies of patience. Ask any Royal Challengers Bengaluru fan.

The eyes of Virat Kohli did not lie that day. Neither did the eyes of his fans.

Ask any Mumbai Indians fan after five consecutive losses whether the team can still win the trophy. They will still say yes.

Why?

Because the eyes have witnessed such stories before.

Eyes never truly rest.

Even in sleep, they move.

They create realities inside dreams - taking us from eating ice cream with our crush, to playing cricket with friends, to gossiping with family, to suddenly being chased by some horrifying Annabelle doll.

Eyes transmit images.

Images create perception.

Perception creates predictability.

Predictability creates certainty.

Perceptions become deep prints on the mind-painfully difficult to erase.

And even when erased, their shadows remain.

Perception convinces one that they are merely sitting in the backseat of the taxi called life. Then, in one brutal stroke, life reminds them:

“It is your car. You are driving.”

Become blind for once.

The moment the eyes close, the brain begins searching for rhythm, vibration, tone, and frequency instead.

A blind man has not visually seen happiness or sorrow the way one with eyes defines it. For him, life has often simply been about satisfaction.

Perhaps because he does not see, he lives more like a human being than the man or woman manufactured by societal norms, comparison, and genetics.