Smile is contagious; but smiley faces we rarely encounter might be over commitment to life, unfulfilled expectation and to achieve more of cosmetics has stolen the “smile factor”. Everyone is running for God knows what reasons whereas slowing down on human factor. To smile and laugh is purely human.
People generally are introverts and carry lot of reservations while greeting or sharing a smile/ to the people they are not acquainted with. In traffic jams, in elevators, in crowded places when one is negotiating to cast a way, one may find people yelling and no hint of a welcome move is celebrated..
It is not that urgency, frustration or unknown, unseen situation makes us unresponsive but generally in known and familiar situation also we refrain from putting a smile on the face. Recently I took a membership of a health club and I noticed the same phenomena happening. Club having a lot of young crowd and matured individuals, but all of them moving in particular groups and not interacting to other group members and neither knows other members. Acme of aloofness being people walking in the club, doing workouts and leaving out quietly, no body felt the presence and so the absence.
I don’t understand how people can so mechanized and reserved in a vibrant and energetic environment of a health club and how people can stay muted without a friendly expression when there is lot of energy in the surrounding. If we talk about the fairer sex, they generally don’t mingle with known-unknowns very easily and this behavior is what we anticipate, but seeing the same behavioral habits of male counterparts is shocking indeed.
I’m talking about a state that has a heritage of over socializing mix, which is landmark of vibrancy itself, right from its name to dance and music, denizen being liberal and woman liberalization and empowerment is what we witness in the state every nook and corner and seeing people living in shell doesn’t appeal to the eyes.
I love the place because if I say “Kem Cho?” to any person whom I’m facing for the very first time he invariably replies “Maja ma”, meaning that he is happy and delighted and doing well. “Kem Cho?”, I spoke to many associates in the health club to which everyone uttered the expected answer and thus we formally got introduced. But the next day most of them appeared to me as unknown-unknown, they were blunt and didn’t carry any expression of warmth, neither any hint of pervious introduction. I never found them appreciating and motivation other efforts. I don’t know what state of “maja ma” they are?
It might be a perception and may not hold true with all the known-unknown scenarios, but this being a fact that smile factor is slowly eroding from our lives and it is now a rarely found expression in the cities.
Too often we under estimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around....
Image source: deepinsidemybroomcloset.blogspot.com
Image source: deepinsidemybroomcloset.blogspot.com
Wonderful and well-written post..reminded me of a poem earlier read... ( Here it is..)
ReplyDeleteA Smile To Remember
We had goldfish and they circled around and around in the bowl
On the table near the heavy drapes covering the picture window
And my mother, always smiling, wanting us all
to be happy, told me, 'be happy Henry!'
And she was right: it's better to be happy if you canbut my father continued to beat her and me several times a week
While raging inside his 6-foot-two frame because he couldn't understand what was attacking him from within.
my mother, poor fish,wanting to be happy, beaten two or three times a week, telling me to be happy: 'Henry, smile! why don't you ever smile?'
and then she would smile, to show me how, and it was the saddest smile I ever saw
One day the goldfish died, all five of them,
they floated on the water, on their sides, their
eyes still open,
And when my father got home he threw them to the cat there on the kitchen floor and we watched as my mother smiled.........
Charles
Very well written post. Me myself don't know, how much i liked this....
ReplyDeleteOne can not Buy the "PARENTS" is the Universal truth. The same way one can not Buy "SMILE" for him/her self...
If we Talk about "KEM CHHO" and "MAJA MA"... the people used to talk and care where they find their individual benefits, otherwise the society is becoming 2much careless...
Excellent one... Thanks, Chaitanya