Ali Peter John
Have you ever heard of a man falling in love with just two eyes which bewitch him and have been bewitching him for almost forty years now? People of all ages have often asked me if I was in love with the beautiful and most talented woman I have known and I have found it extremely difficult to answer them, can just falling in love with her eyes be called falling in love?
I first saw her eyes in a film called “Ek Baar Phir” and when I came out of the theatre, I wanted to see her eyes again and again, baar baar, aur phir ek baar, aur phir ek baar phir.
I spent sleepless nights giving trouble to my eyes to know where the owner of these two eyes lived and found myself outside an apartment called Queen’s Apartments in Juhu where she lived as a paying guest, I knocked at her door and before seeing her I saw those two beautiful eyes which had enraptured me like no other eyes had in all my life, I kept speaking to her about her work in New York in TV and her ambition to make it in films, but my eyes were focused on her eyes, and by the end of our first meeting I had drowned her in my eyes even though I knew my eyes were not worth housing her eyes.
She kept growing as a talented actress and I kept growing into a very good friend and even some of the best actors and directors she worked with were eager to know whether I was in love with her, how could I make them understand that I was in love with her eyes, I tried telling a few the truth about my strange love story, but they all gave me up as a mad man, aankhon se bhi koi pyaar karta hai aaj ke zamaane mein, they asked.
She had her own affairs of the heart and the same men asked me if I was not a shattered man in love and I told them arre jo aankhon se pyaar karta hai uska pyaar amar hota hai aur uska dil kabhi tootta nahi hai. They again made fun of me and I didn’t care because I knew the truth about what my love was.
She got married to a well-known director and I was one of the witnesses at the wedding ceremony which was conducted under Arya Samaj rites and they wondered what kind of a human being I was to be a witness to the wedding of the one I loved so very madly, I did not have answers for fools who did not understand the depths of true love.
We have been friends for the last forty-three years, we have had our ups and downs as friends, we are now into our sixties, she is known as one of the best actresses even though she deserved more, but she has no regrets, I am still one of her best friends and I am surprised when men who have been more closely related to her have asked me, “how can you tolerate that woman her forty long years?” And I tell myself and tell those who still ask me, “that is the magic of falling in love with two eyes, the love that takes birth in two eyes and then grows into a love story which never knows tolerance or intolerance, they only know how to love and even if they are hurt once in a way, the eyes have the art of hiding the hurts and sparkling with the glow of love and understanding.
I was once tempted to tell her how much I loved her, it was during the time when she was working in a film called “Kisi Se Na Kehna”, I looked at the posters of the film every morning and evening and silently told her how much I loved her, but when it was evening and we sat together over glasses of wine, I decided to let my eyes tell her everything that I felt for her, my eyes have still the same feelings for her, we have left the story of our love expressed through our eyes be as misty and sweet and I would like our unusual love story be the way it has been for forty years, the love story of four eyes which will never die till the eyes themselves give up and leave the love story untold till the very end. After saying all this about our love for four decades I don’t think I should give away her name, but I am sure she knows and all those who know me know who I am talking about- the actress, writer, poet, painter and the woman who give me the feeling that she is not made for this world like I am not made for this world.
Long live, sweet eyes, keep growing younger because I believe eyes like your eyes can never grow old, they are eyes created by God only once and find lovers like me once in a while
I can't believe she is sixty-seven now, but she is, that is how time passes and what time does to the best of human beings. But Deepti, you are the fortunate one, your bewitching eyes are still so deep and mysterious, deeper than the ocean, deep enough to drown every human emotion and feeling and keep them within your two eyes.
If, God forbid, you decide to donate your eyes, I wish I could be young enough to be the recipient of your eyes so that I can spend the rest of my life seeing all those mysteries and secrets you have kept hidden even from me who you have been calling your best friend for forty long years.
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Tags: Bollywood, Bollywood News, Bollywood Updates, Television, Telly News, Deepti Naval, Prakash Jha, Bollywood Actress, Veteran Actress, Hindi Cinema