No man is an island

This post is about a girl. 

We were in the same project but different technologies. We sat at different floors and hadn’t seen each other. In fact, I was not even aware of her existence.  Until Destiny put us side-by-side in a training program conducted by the client we were working for.

The circumstances under which we talked were rather amusing.

Sitting at an oval table, we were neighbours. One plate of biscuits was provided for every two participants. I shared mine with another team mate. We polished off ours while this girl and her neighbour had not started theirs. We eyed their plate for some time and finally, steeling myself, decided to ask her if she could please pass it on.

I cleared my throat, she turned around and looked at me with her expressive almond eyes. Her eyebrows posed a question, she did not speak. For that moment, I forgot the biscuits, the training program and even the world around me. For that endless moment, all that existed were those jet-black twinkling eyes.

Then, from nowhere, came the question, “Yes?”

I realized it came from her. I started to form a sentence, discarded it and looked into her eyes again. Then I said, “You have ……” I was going to say “…beautiful eyes!” I swallowed the compliment and said, “You have ….a plate of biscuits which you don’t seem to be interested in. Could you please pass those?” She smiled, not only with her lips but with the eyes too. She nudged the plate towards me and those eyes were back on me. I blurted out my thanks and got busy with the biscuits.

I never bothered asking her name, I already had one for her.

Almond Eyes.

In the next couple of months, I saw Almond Eyes twice or thrice. She might have smiled at me, I never noticed; I was busy admiring her extraordinary eyes.

One not-so-fine morning, there was a mail from HR. About the demise of a colleague. Those mails make me think about my inevitable mortality which lingers on throughout the day. This time, it was all the more intense.

Almond Eyes had died in a car crash.

She was returning from her engagement.

She was just 22 years old.

That was the day I realized what John Donne meant by ‘If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less’.  

No man is an island,

Entire of itself.

Each is a piece of the continent,

A part of the main.

If a clod be washed away by the sea,

Europe is the less.

As well as if a promontory were.

As well as if a manor of thine own

Or of thine friend's were.

Each man's death diminishes me,

For I am involved in mankind.

Therefore, send not to know

For whom the bell tolls,

It tolls for thee...

I felt diminished. I went through the day like an automaton, I could not concentrate on anything.

Rest in peace, Almond Eyes. 

In addition to your family and friends, you will be remembered by a guy who, instead of complimenting, went for the biscuits.