How often have you just laughed up over something totally funny with a stranger? Or played with their kid and told them they're ultra cute? Do you ever smile up to a person you've never met before? Do you even do that with people you keep seeing everyday, or have they become wall-posters of your life?
Our lives seem so constrained and bottled up, we hardly see what is happening with people outside our circle. Whenever I go for a morning walk I feel so refreshed and energized because in that short stretch of half an hour, I see people from all walks of life. Old pot-bellied men who are trying to pull themselves back into shape, youngsters coming out after training at the gym, the cycle vendor selling tender coconut, open air yoga/exercise sessions going on outside the nearby hospital and attended by people of all age groups and people gathering around the local farmer to get the fresh morning's supply of vegetables. Suddenly you can see the whole cycle of the cosmos in action, and truly 'feel' that you're a part and parcel of it.
It seems strange to say it, but somehow college life had taken away the smile I always readily kept for everyone - if not outwardly, at least inwardly. Sometimes life tends to make you a cynic and a skeptic. But these days I make it a point to smile and be happy smiling at people around me. But why restrict my smile only to people I know. Isn't a smile more precious when given away?
Let me try to disprove people who warn 'Don't talk to strangers' :) Unlike Paulo Coelho's Santiago, I may never meet my Melchizedek, but good or bad, it will at least be worth the while :)
Our lives seem so constrained and bottled up, we hardly see what is happening with people outside our circle. Whenever I go for a morning walk I feel so refreshed and energized because in that short stretch of half an hour, I see people from all walks of life. Old pot-bellied men who are trying to pull themselves back into shape, youngsters coming out after training at the gym, the cycle vendor selling tender coconut, open air yoga/exercise sessions going on outside the nearby hospital and attended by people of all age groups and people gathering around the local farmer to get the fresh morning's supply of vegetables. Suddenly you can see the whole cycle of the cosmos in action, and truly 'feel' that you're a part and parcel of it.
It seems strange to say it, but somehow college life had taken away the smile I always readily kept for everyone - if not outwardly, at least inwardly. Sometimes life tends to make you a cynic and a skeptic. But these days I make it a point to smile and be happy smiling at people around me. But why restrict my smile only to people I know. Isn't a smile more precious when given away?
Let me try to disprove people who warn 'Don't talk to strangers' :) Unlike Paulo Coelho's Santiago, I may never meet my Melchizedek, but good or bad, it will at least be worth the while :) 
3 comments:
Hey Friendly stranger! Do you remember me smiling(definitely not with admiration) at you for the first time? I guess you learnt it from me, looks strange to you anyways.
Having a smile on face - good for our health - also makes us more welcome with others (this is the same idea which you conveyed,but you are saying about how others will feel good about it, but me being "selfish", talks about the benefits we have)
Strangers - everyone is born with only strangers around - then first our mother becomes less strange to us, then dad, and relatives, friends. Everyone still remains strangers, but the degree of strangeness decreases. But we set some threshold for this degree of strangeness, when it decreases beyond this point, we dont call them strangers anymore (but point is that still they are strangers!)
So we live among strangers, but our degree of strangeness with each of them varies - What do you say Seb? :)
@Reuben - hey reuben! Great to see you here :) Sure I'll remember those sly looks :)
@Unni - The reply of a programmer to the core :) Yes I agree, but the threshold for characterization of strangeness changes over time too .. don't you think ?
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