Smile Please !!!

There was a time in my life as a teenager when my face in all my  photographs would be like this ('_')  , yea right! a pair of eyes looking blankly at the camera minus the smile.As a teen I was an angry guy. Just cross at the world ,at people,at circumstances, at everything in general.By principle I found it very difficult to smile. Even a 'smile please ' would elicit a forceful pulling of my cheeks backwards. I would literally say 'cheese' in my mind to bring out a smile and if there was any delay in clicking the pic I would have to start the process all over again. I had real anger issues which I was unable to express it. Anyhow I have come a long way since then and have mellowed down a bit. And as time passed by, several experiences have taught me to smile and appreciate  it's beauty and see it's presence in everyday life.Just the other day in the mall I saw this middle aged couple. Where I saw a big smile on the lady's face as she stood on the escalator while her husband held her steady. From the look of things her first ride on an escalator I guess.But the smile absolutely priceless.                             I recently did this one week experiment, in which I passed a smile to everyone that met my eye in the course of the day. Be it a pretty girl, an old man, kids or  strangers.And guess what everyone  almost 90% of the people returned a smile except the pretty girls and those characters resembling Scrooge from Charles Dickens 'The Christmas Story' ,who were perpetually nasty and angry by force of habit.(BTW a couple of pretty girls did smile back ) .So the take home point for me is smile,smile and smile,nobody gets offended when you smile.                             We all have problems, some huge and some very small. That's what life is all about , one giant roller coaster ride with its ups and down. But all that should not bog us down. A smile is what tells us that it will be all right when our world seems topsy turvy.When we see our troubles we should see it in light those having a bigger problems than ours. At my workplace I see lot of kids with cancer on a plethora of chemotherapy and countless pricks for the IV cannulas and blood tests .But despite all the pain these kids give one of the most beautiful smiles.It's an humbling experience.It happened with me as one day I was having an exceptionally bad day at work and then out of nowhere I see this small girl ,diagnosed with cancer , her hair all gone and she gave me one of the best smiles of my life almost angelic.It was as if to say there's more to life than a bad day at work.Just a gentle reminder as to how inconsequential my problems are in the whole scheme of things.                                                We all smile for different reasons.We smile to acknowledge someone we know,when we remember something funny,pleasant or memorable and for countless other reasons. Nobody teaches us to smile.It comes naturally to us.But for those who want some reason to smile.I'l give you some.So here I go.                  Firstly it's less work.I had once read somewhere that it takes more muscles to frown than to smile. So if you frown more you end up working more. So all you lazy bums who have an aversion to hard work.Here's some good new. Start smiling or else you inadvertently end up working hard.
            Secondly it's free. Yea you heard it right. It's absolutely free.It costs you nothing .You give one and you receive one back too. Now that's a good deal ain't it.You smile freely and you get one back for free. So all you cheapsters. This is something that should drive you ecstatic.  
            Thirdly it's a life saver. Many a times I was saved from a potential social embarrassment.When I smiled at my friend and he pointed a wayward cumin or a notoriously resistant piece of food stuck in between the gums and teeth.Phew! disaster averted.
            And finally its aestheticlly pleasing . We humans are very visual beings.We like something that is beautiful and easy on the eyes. Imagine seeing a body rotting and on the other hand imagine a baby smile. Yea,you see your different reactions.That's what I'm talking about.Hmmm I hope you get it. So all you people keep smiling (like my friend says) you never know who might fall in love with your smile.