‘Love in the Time of Viral’

I was visiting Preeti in Sterling Hospital and I happened to be hungry so I decided to head to the canteen to eat a cheese sandwich, whose legacy was passed on to me by Su with her breath diffusing the scent of the cheese as she did that, and so with that intention I found my way to the basement where the ‘Cafeteria’ was supposed to be and I did not waste a second in ordering a cheese sandwich, which in its minimalist charm held nothing more than two slices of bread with a thick layer of cheese between them, and like many things simple brought down to the basics for the sake of extracting the most basic reactions from us…it looked intelligently crafted for extracting the water of the mouth.

As I munched the sandwich I saw the people around me and suddenly, surprisingly I was transfixed by the eyes of a man who stood nearby, the kind of character who you would find tempting to frame in the ‘To Kill a Mocking Bird’ fashion, the kind of character who becomes the victim of not only his own suspicions and insecurities but other’s too. He was also the kind of character who is the product of circumstances and can’t claim to have shaped even a moment of his own life effectively. His eyes were beautiful. To say the least, they were mesmerizing.

As I munched my sandwich trying to appreciate the beauty of his eyes, I looked around me to other people…and to my surprise all of them seemed to have beautiful eyes. The whole room was glowing with the presence of these beautiful eyed people.

I finished the sandwich and came out of the room which I now call the ‘Basement of Beautiful Eyes’ thinking that was it the lighting that made them look beautiful or as I would like to believe, an acquired perspective where one finds beauty in anything?

I vacated the basement and headed straight upstairs to Room 308…Preeti’s room. I had forgotten the visitor’s pass up in the room for the nth time so the stair guard put on the stern expression for the nth time and asked me about it and I did a little ‘I am a loser I dunno where’s my life going’ act but this time he didn’t let me go anywhere. So on the landing I was stranded thinking how I would get to Preeti which three guards blocking me at three levels. Had this been a computer game called ‘The sterling Rescue’, it was all a matter of spanking the crap out of them and progressing to the subsequent level and then liberating the beautiful princess kept captive by evil doctors who can’t find the vein to insert the IV properly so that it all leaves her forearm black and blue.

Then I thought I would just take the lift. So I hopped into it. The liftman didn’t seem much bothered about the pass but too much bothered about the ‘anti-pass’ I had which was nothing but my Frooty pack. He was so intent on having me dispose it off before riding the lift that he even pointed to the left where I could throw the carton and climb in. I followed his finger and looked around and found nothing remotely resembling a dustbin except for patients in weird postures on wheelchairs…so I decided to rush back…only to find the elevator doors sliding and closing in fast. I could still see the smile of the guard on it and it wasn’t pretty…I would like to see it without teeth actually…but surprisingly his eyes looked beautiful…fantastic…as if not obeying his malicious intentions for Frooty pack carriers. And everyone else in the lift had beautiful eyes too.

By then I had had enough…and I decided to head up the stairs. I was of course stopped again on the landing. And I said… ‘I am not carrying any bombs…I am here to take care of a patient so would you please let me go up.’ and this time I was heard. so I went up and reached 308, opened the door…saw Su first…all set to go back to MICA…she had beautiful eyes…and then my eyes fell on Preeti’s…filled with the expectation to get discharged from the pink, pretty looking dungeon of disease-combat…filled with the good news of her AIMA paper doing well…they looked beautiful…and so did every single person’s eye since that sterling day at Sterling.

In this time of viral…I fell in love with eyes…left, right and centre…all colors and all size. And the syndrome continues. I can say with my eyes closed now that if you too are lucky enough to have a pair, which you must be to be reading this, without a doubt, they must be beautiful too!