"....see, I told you she is always smiling... even when she is walking alone....it is really weird..."
...said a friend, pointing at this girl walking towards us in our engineering college cafeteria, as we were sipping on a cutting chai that had a plate of bun-maska for company. This lady always had a smile on her face. I don't recall seeing her angry or upset ever.
About a month later, we were all sitting on the stairs outside the physics lab. It was viva (oral examination) time, so everyone was anxious. Every student coming out of the lab was given the paparazzi treatment. Everyone asked just one question: "Kya pucha?" (What were you asked?). The celebrity would then narrate how they navigated through the event. In engineering, some vivas were a breeze and others a nightmare. This one was the latter.
A few minutes later, this lady walked up the stairs and, as usual, she had a smile on her face. This friend of mine could no longer contain his curiosity and blurted out to her "How are you always smiling? Aren't you worried? This guy is asking really tricky questions in there!" "You know what..." she looked at him in the eye and said, still smiling... "...I once read somewhere that as we grow older, our default facial expressions get accentuated based on the facial expressions we sport for most of our lives. I want to look like a smiling old lady when I grow up. So I try to keep smiling as much as I can to get to that phase,'' she said, as she just walked past towards where her group was sitting.
After a while, it was her turn and when she came out after the Viva, she got asked the same thing - "How was it?" "It was s**t!" she replied, grinning ear to ear, as she walked past, shaking her head side to side.
The girl's name was Smitha and unfortunately I have not been in touch with her since the engineering days, but I am sure some common friends will get this story to her.
Thank you Smitha, for a life-lesson that was never forgotten.
Good one. It's not easy to sport a smiling face all the time. Sometimes your old pictures will tell you why it was necessary to smile.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely, and though this incident is stuck in my min, I keep forgetting to smile :)
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