When a smile from a stranger works miracles…

There was a restless kind of silence around me waiting to engulf me into its dark dungeon. Things were not going the way I had planned them, on the contrary diametrically opposite things happened…and when they happened I felt as though the whole world was conspiring against me. Dejection crept in, a sense of solitude filled my mind, and I felt alone in the crowd and failed to listen to the many people around me. I was feeling sapped out of my energies and cognizance….
With turmoil inside me I stepped onto the lanes outside my college, with a friend. She took me to a park nearby where there was not even a bench for us to sit. So we dug up our bags to find papers to sit on, finally settled we looked around aimlessly laughing at ourselves…suddenly from nowhere a gang of kids turned up…they were from families of slum dwellers…they had some of the dirtiest faces I have ever seen, yet the most beautiful smiles. They were playing with a Latto (Top). I have never seen such a defunct toy in my life…but they seemed to derive immense pleasure out of their toy. I exclaimed at my friend when one of the toddlers managed to spin the toy like an adroit, my exclamation brought a smile on his face and an expression as though he had achieved something out of this world…
He then came up to me and demonstrated all his tricks he could perform with that toy, noticing my cell phone he said in the sweetest possible tone “ Didi meri photo pahado na” which I gladly did…on looking at his photo he broke into one of the sweetest and purest giggle I had ever heard…he posed gallantly for the camera and called all his friends for a group photograph…one of them even rushed home and called his sisters and introduced them to us and asked us to click their pictures also...all of them saw the pictures, enjoyed them for a moment and then dispersed to play…suddenly two youngest boys from the gang came from nowhere and asked us to click their pictures and the striking salute pose was the highlight…the kids laughed and giggled and went on to play…
They went off and left their smiles on my face…I felt rejuvenated and complacent as though I had achieved something…had I ?
Yes I had…I regained my cognizance back, that my smile had never gone anywhere it was there with me, within me…the only thing that was lacking was the will and the reason…now I had both…
The kids had given me the will to smile even in the most excruciating circumstances like they did and the reason to smile being their infectious smiles itself…
All this thanks to my friend who took me to that park…..Thanks Sangeeta.