Country of Blinds

 I remember this short story in our school English textbook in Class VIII - "Country of Blinds" by the famous author H.G. Wells. To make the short story short - A guy named Nunez suddenly lands up in a land of blinds where generations ago all the population lost their eyesight en masse due to a pandemic. So the current generation forgot what  eyesight was.

Nunez was forced to live in the country of blinds. Eventually he falls in love with a local girl with a very pretty face with tall features and a sharp nose, who was much disliked by her fellow blind young men whose concept of beauty was a flat face. As they couldn't see, when they touched a girl's face to feel her beauty, the flatter the face, more attractive was the girl to the youth of the country of blinds. Their concept of beauty was lost in time with their eyesight.

Nunez's new found love was strikingly  different from the stereotype beauty of the flat faced in the country of blinds. It's said beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder. In the country of blinds, no one had eyes. Concept of beauty in the country of blinds lied in the touch of the flatness of a face, not the sharp nosed pretty face Nunez's beloved had for him to behold.

When you become blind the age old concepts and perceptions change. Not what you see is what you believe, rather you tend to see what you can't see but those blessed by the views of the conformist. Nunez's girlfriend who was constantly ignored by the youth in her milieu fell for him as he gave her the attention she never got from the local boys. When others laughed at Nunez and ridiculed the man for his sight, his lady love sympathized with him. He could see through Nunez's eyes the sight which she visualuzed must be a good thing as she trusted him. She couldn't see but feel through his eyes the greenery of grass, the beauty in the hue of the flowers, in the whiteness of the fleecy clouds, in the spectacular blue color of the sky and the bright glow of the full moon. Listening to Nunez's view of sight she was fascinated with her sharp, pretty face glowing under the moonlit sky as her blind mates stayed in dark. Unknown to her, she was already falling for Nunez.

We all know that truth could be little hard, as hardly one can take unpleasant truth. Love is blind and love is strongest when it is unreasonable. Same goes with Bhakti (devotion). Like the citizens of country of blinds, many today are brainwashed into unflinching Bhakti shown towards a person or leader, believing not in the reality but in the perception as seen by the young men in H G Well's famous short story. They can't see things as they are blinded by the rhetorics and demagoguery of their God in the human form, as those in the country of blinds. For them the day and night are the same as they can't see the difference. As per the go of the contemporary world, hope we aren't gradually turning into a country of blinds.