With Pure Motherly Love
-Lexiamma
To My Dear Readers,
Recently, I received a rather interesting email from a young girl. She asked me a question that I always wanted to answer and share among everyone. She said-
“ My friends and family have noticed and pointed out that I am always very grumpy and I seldom smile. They do not understand the work load I have in college and expect me to always keep a smiling face even when I am stressed. How is it possible for me to do that? Why is it so necessary for people around me to expect me to be ever so cheerful?”
I am going to answer this question in a rather long, essay fashion. Spoiler: You will smile at the end for sure!
As I step outside my home and pause to look around, I see a busy city. A city full of people, engrossed in their own busy lives, racing to catch a train, a train that they believe will take them to their ‘destination’. They are racing against time, colliding with people walking nearby, shrugging their shoulders and moving on.
Why don’t we ever take a pause? Why don’t we ever halt to smile at one another? What would it take for us to brighten each other’s lives with positivity?
My grand daughter studies in a medical college. One day she comes running to me, to tell me about this lovely woman she met there.She is a middle aged woman, who works as a service maid in the academic office. Short and stout, wears a simple and elegant saree and her forehead adorned by colourful ‘bindis’. Students call her ‘maushi’. But what surpasses all these accessories that she wears, is the smile that remains permanently fixed on her face.
Every time she sees a student teacher or co-worker, she broadens her smile, asks them about their day and parts with a positive goodbye and a blessing. No matter how good you are at predicting a person’s mood, no body can ever look at maushi and say that she had a tough day at work, or her knee has been paining the whole day or she is angry at the office for not giving her a break from work.
My grand daughter asks me- “Grandma, what could be the secret behind her ever glowing smile?” SECRET? She chooses to overcome every bit of unpleasant times with a beautiful smile on her face. You young readers to whom I address these stories, bearly qualify as a mature adult, and yet you already feel like having hit the premature midlife crisis. And then there is maushi, making life look like a breezy day, one that brushes through your hair strands and leaves you in peace for that moment.
When you see someone like maushi, you involuntarily smile. There is no thinking to it. You locate that woman from far off and already begin to smile at her arrival.
So my request to you all is this- Why can’t each one of us be like maushi? Why can’t we leave the opposite person with a smile, the moment we make eye contact. It is okay to smile like a maniac. It is okay if it leaves the opposite person perplexed. But there is no denying that smiling is a reflex. You give that stimulus and you receive a smile from them. You are probably the first person who smiled at them that day, or the last person to end their day on a positive note.
It does not take a lot to make impact in everyone’s lives. You don’t necessarily need to know the person to have an impact. All you need is a smile. A smile that is contagious and one that no medicine can ever kill.
Until next time….
Yours Truly
LexiAmma 🙂
