Shivani Raj Urs L

India

Sight

Sitting across the corner was an old man with tattered clothes. On the other side of the hospital room separated by a black thick curtain was another man aged towards his mid-thirties. The two men could not see each other’s faces, so they got acquainted by speaking. The younger man asked the old man what his politics were on the war that took place, which was the reason why they were lying down there. The old man then introduced himself as Matt and the young man as Scott. To thaw time, Scott asked what was on the other side of the room – the side he could not see. Matt with a warm voice answered that there was a huge window widely open. The curious young man asked him to describe it for him. Soon finding the adequate words, Matt answered: there was the glow of the lights, colors of butterflies, blooming flowers, dry leaves, tender saplings, huge trees, squirrels, frogs and running water to top it all. Scott was awestruck just by hearing all of it.

Two weeks passed by, and the old man was getting discharged after weeks of fantasizing over the window. Scott, who was eager to see the view, shifted himself to the corner where the old man was. Once shifted, all he saw was a building demolished with destroyed plants. He then found a letter that read: “I am blind. Everything I described is what I hope to see one day. Life is just between two dates, but what lies in between is anything but normal. Be the change.

– Yours, Crazy Blind Man.”