DATING

by

VIKRAM KARVE

         What does a beautiful woman do when a handsome young man looks at her in an insistent, lingering sort of way, which is worth a hundred compliments?

          I’ll tell you what she did. First, she realized that I was looking at her, and then she accepted the fact of being looked at, and finally she began to look at me in return.

          Suddenly her eyes became hard and she grilled me with a stern stare that made me uncomfortable.

          Scared and discomfited, I quickly averted my eyes and tried to disappear into the crowd. I felt ashamed of having eyed her so blatantly. ‘What did she think of me?’ I wondered.

          But soon, by instinct and almost against my will, my eyes began searching, trying to find her again. There she was. At the fruit-stall. Buying fruit.

          She was an exquisite beauty - tall, fair and freshly bathed, her luxuriant black hair flowing down her back, her sharp features accentuated by the morning sun, her nose slightly turned up, so slender and transparent, as though accustomed to smelling nothing but perfumes.

          I was mesmerized. Never before had anyone evoked such a sensation in me. An unknown force propelled me towards the fruit-stall. I stood near her and made pretence of choosing a papaya, trying to look at her with sidelong glances when I thought she wasn’t noticing.

          She noticed. And then she looked at me. Her eyes were extremely beautiful -enormous, dark, expressive. And suddenly her eyes began to dance, and seeing the genuine admiration in my eyes, she gave me smile so captivating that I experienced a delightful twinge in my heart.

She selected a papaya and extended her hands to give it to me. Our fingers touched. The feeling was electric. It was sheer ecstasy. I felt so good that I wished time would stand still.

          I can’t begin to describe the sensation I felt deep within me. I tried to smile. She communicated an unspoken good-bye with her eyes and briskly walked away.

          Three months have passed since. She has never missed her date with me, same time, same place, every Sunday - at precisely Seven o’clock in the morning.

But, my dear Reader, do you know? Not a word has been exchanged between us. We romance using the language of the eyes. And part with an unspoken good-bye. Once I was slightly late for our rendezvous. And I could see her eyes desperately searching for me. And when she found me, her eyes danced with delight.

          Me and my “lady love”. We live in this world, but we love in another. Romancing in our own enchanting secret ethereal world. Can any love can surpass our silent love? Our enchanting love. It feels like non-alcoholic intoxication. Supreme Bliss.

Should I speak to her?

I do not know.

Why doesn’t she speak to me?

I do not know.

Does one have to speak to express love?

Are words the only way to communicate love?

Maybe we both want our beautiful romance to remain this way. Esoteric. Our lovely love. So exquisite. So pristine. So divine. So fragile. So delicate. So sensitive. So delicately poised. So silent. Just one word would spoil everything, destroy our enthralling state of trancelike bliss, and bring everything crashing down from supreme ecstasy to harsh ground reality.

I think it’s best to let our lovely romance go on for ever and ever, till eternity.

Do you think so? How long should we go on like this? ‘Dating’ with our eyes on Sunday Morning !

Dear Reader, please tell me what to do.

I’ll do exactly as you say. And then I will let you know what happened next Sunday. 

VIKRAM KARVE

Copyright © Vikram Karve 2008

Vikram Karve has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.

http://vikramkarve.sulekha.com

vikramkarve@sify.com