- 3:25 AM - 0 comments
KEEP SMILING
Well haven’t we read this time and again about how a smile can brighten up other people’s day??? I thought why not give it a try. I hadn’t mentioned anything about this experiment of mine to my family as I know what their reaction to this idea of mine would be. They would say they cant imagine me going around smiling at random people. I usually sulk around unknown people. Yet once I get to know them, they tell me I am somewhat of a spoilt cartoon. Whatever that means.
So here I was planning on smiling at randomly anyone whose eyes meet mine. People who I see walking on the road or driving their cars, riding bikes or simply standing and waiting for someone or something. People whom I might never meet again.
I start from home to go to my computer institute that is around 20 kms away. Now I am not driving, in case you wonder that I will concentrate more on smiling and cause an accident. The driver is doing his job. So its evening and on the way, a group of kids from a government school are the first to be bombarded with the smiles as my car passes them by. They give a glance and I smile and wave at them. As if I were some sort of celebrity. Now the most brilliant thing about being a kid is you enjoy everything simple that life has to offer. And almost instantly, I was getting the smiles and the waves back from an absolutely unknown bunch of kids. The brightest heartfelt smiles from kids. The first experience was good. I move on.
I live in the cantonment area. It is obvious that I would get to see young and dashing men in their uniforms through the entire stretch of my journey towards the main city. I’ve seen a few of them do duty in the area on a daily basis. And earlier I used to be really skeptical about looking straight at them. I don’t know but men in their uniforms pose a more different feel altogether. Very authoritative, head-master/principal kind, if you get what I mean. My driver has slowed down near a speed breaker behind another car with an “L” Board on it. And there I notice a young army man standing in the weather just sweating it out in the middle of nowhere. Well not exactly nowhere. But standing all alone at one corner must surely seem like being nowhere. At least I feel so. I can’t stand to wait alone in a street for friends even for 10 mins. It seems like eternity. I wonder how they spend their time for hours together. I still have no clue why they are there.
So let me get back to it all again. Now there was this army man standing and I have never looked at any army man in the eye. Even if I look, I look away instinctively. I have my resolution for the day already going Caput with only the second person looking at me. But small miracles do happen. Instinctively instead of looking away I just smiled. It was probably the fact that I was filled with smiles given by the earlier bunch of kids, that this was just a carry forward of it all. I dint really expect any reaction from that man, but he did. He smiled back. Now we move ahead and I really don’t notice too many people as my driver ups his speed. I begin to wonder what my driver would think if he saw the rear view mirror and saw me smiling away. To hell what anyone thinks. It felt good to be smiling and seeing others smile.
We reach a busy intersection and among the hordes of slow moving vehicles, ours is in corner of the road. Now the speed must have been 20 km/hr or less and I get to see the facial expressions of people again. I search for my next target of bombardment of smiles and there I find one instantly. A vendor selling grapes. Must have been in his fifties, or maybe less. So here I was smiling away at him and I had my first negative response to the smiles today. He just looked at me with a blank face, probably thinking that I need some medical help. That really did not disappoint me as I moved on smiling at everyone I could find looking at my side. I smiled at many aunties, many more kids and a few youngsters. The result wasn’t always positive. I had a few comments from a bunch of guys but I had to take it in my stride. I was on a mission. A mission to smile and see other people smile. And I had witnessed it. The rate of people smiling back must have been marginally greater than those with no or negative responses. But yet, the smiles had left a greater impact. I reached the institute in high spirits. And I had one thought in mind. I might never meet those people again and not recall their faces, even after one hour of seeing them. But the smiles I had witnessed will always remain. I can conclude by saying that yes, smiles do make other people’s day…as they do make your own. Keep SMILING.
So here I was planning on smiling at randomly anyone whose eyes meet mine. People who I see walking on the road or driving their cars, riding bikes or simply standing and waiting for someone or something. People whom I might never meet again.
I start from home to go to my computer institute that is around 20 kms away. Now I am not driving, in case you wonder that I will concentrate more on smiling and cause an accident. The driver is doing his job. So its evening and on the way, a group of kids from a government school are the first to be bombarded with the smiles as my car passes them by. They give a glance and I smile and wave at them. As if I were some sort of celebrity. Now the most brilliant thing about being a kid is you enjoy everything simple that life has to offer. And almost instantly, I was getting the smiles and the waves back from an absolutely unknown bunch of kids. The brightest heartfelt smiles from kids. The first experience was good. I move on.
I live in the cantonment area. It is obvious that I would get to see young and dashing men in their uniforms through the entire stretch of my journey towards the main city. I’ve seen a few of them do duty in the area on a daily basis. And earlier I used to be really skeptical about looking straight at them. I don’t know but men in their uniforms pose a more different feel altogether. Very authoritative, head-master/principal kind, if you get what I mean. My driver has slowed down near a speed breaker behind another car with an “L” Board on it. And there I notice a young army man standing in the weather just sweating it out in the middle of nowhere. Well not exactly nowhere. But standing all alone at one corner must surely seem like being nowhere. At least I feel so. I can’t stand to wait alone in a street for friends even for 10 mins. It seems like eternity. I wonder how they spend their time for hours together. I still have no clue why they are there.
So let me get back to it all again. Now there was this army man standing and I have never looked at any army man in the eye. Even if I look, I look away instinctively. I have my resolution for the day already going Caput with only the second person looking at me. But small miracles do happen. Instinctively instead of looking away I just smiled. It was probably the fact that I was filled with smiles given by the earlier bunch of kids, that this was just a carry forward of it all. I dint really expect any reaction from that man, but he did. He smiled back. Now we move ahead and I really don’t notice too many people as my driver ups his speed. I begin to wonder what my driver would think if he saw the rear view mirror and saw me smiling away. To hell what anyone thinks. It felt good to be smiling and seeing others smile.
We reach a busy intersection and among the hordes of slow moving vehicles, ours is in corner of the road. Now the speed must have been 20 km/hr or less and I get to see the facial expressions of people again. I search for my next target of bombardment of smiles and there I find one instantly. A vendor selling grapes. Must have been in his fifties, or maybe less. So here I was smiling away at him and I had my first negative response to the smiles today. He just looked at me with a blank face, probably thinking that I need some medical help. That really did not disappoint me as I moved on smiling at everyone I could find looking at my side. I smiled at many aunties, many more kids and a few youngsters. The result wasn’t always positive. I had a few comments from a bunch of guys but I had to take it in my stride. I was on a mission. A mission to smile and see other people smile. And I had witnessed it. The rate of people smiling back must have been marginally greater than those with no or negative responses. But yet, the smiles had left a greater impact. I reached the institute in high spirits. And I had one thought in mind. I might never meet those people again and not recall their faces, even after one hour of seeing them. But the smiles I had witnessed will always remain. I can conclude by saying that yes, smiles do make other people’s day…as they do make your own. Keep SMILING.
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