Rainbow Smile

My mother used to tell me when I was a kid, “Fill your life with colors and you will always have a rainbow to smile at”. My father would then lift me up on his lap and with a hand on my kid brothers head, say with his enriched wisdom and experience “ Always listen to your mother. She is our rock”.. That was when I was 10 yrs old. Almost 25 years later I recollected that experience yet again. It was a very gloomy day. Not the kind of ay that you would want to smile at. I was having a bad day at work and getting kicked around for what I had done and for what I had left undone or not done. I got kicked even for what I was supposed to do. Peace parleys were heading nowhere and that sickening feeling of failing at what was my raison de atre was enough to pull me down the dregs of depression.I like to tell myself that I have great tolerance for ambiguity and ooze oodles of patience. But this just wasn’t my day. To top it all it was sickeningly hot and my tempers were really frayed. I just wanted to push everything away from me and tell the world to go take a walk. I normally have a naughty smile on my face but today I sported a perpetual scowl and I could see that people were afraid to approach me, scared that I might bite.

Golden words of wisdom from my interpreter who said thus “ sir, a father has to be patient. A cruel father cannot teach anything to his kids” did nothing to elevate my state of mind. The morning passed off quickly and we entered afternoon. And then in the evening I see someone in the lines dead drunk and oblivious to the world around him. A perfect ending to a perfectly bad hair day. Probably one of the worst days of my life I thought. It was about 5 30 in the evening and I was out for the usual 5 kms at 5 pm, thinking a rush of adrenalin would alleviate my moods a bit. Black clouds partially covered the sun and it was humid as hell. As I reached the busy market area there was the usual crowd of late evening shoppers and I had to slow down the run to a walk jog to meander between the mass of humanity. On my right was a small shelter made of thatch and mud and inside it was a local woman in tattered clothes playing with her baby. The lady was looking away from me and the baby was facing me. She was shabbily dressed and so was the baby. She had mud and dirt on her hands and legs and was looking wistfully at the busy world. An unknown world. Suddenly the clouds burst and gave way to a torrential thunderclap followed by a shower that threatened to soak even the bones.

The entire sea of humanity which was busy shopping suddenly seemed surprised and drenched and disappeared into makeshift shelters. The lady in rags did not move an inch. She kept a plastic sheet on the baby and kept on with whatever had been keeping her busy. Suddenly the baby looked straight at me with those large beautiful eyes and smiled. I really don’t know if babies that age actually smile or not but I am actually not bothered. I like to think that she smiled at me and that smile had peace, it had contentment and it had satisfaction. Involuntarily I smiled back. For the first time in the day I actually smiled and that wonder baby laughed. It was the most beautiful toothless laughter that I had ever seen or heard. I smiled at the baby again and then the reality of it all struck to me. I was supposed to be having a bad day and I was glum. What about that baby? How many good days would that baby have? And still the baby was smiling back so courageously at the big bad world. I learnt my lesson. I had so many things to be happy about. My family, my friends, my career, and my special moments in life. I had taken everything for granted and instead of being happy for each day that I had, I was asking for more, being selfish. Unfortunately that is what we all are. Selfish to the very core and very unsatisfied with whatever we are or have today. We even do charity out of our own selfish interest. Either to wash off the guilt of having or to purge our own conscience. And as I took in the significance of that special moment when that baby smiled at me, I realized that I was suddenly a happy human being. I realized that its all that we actually need. Lots of smiles and genuine ones at that because a smile is very infectious and motivating.

Well I forgot to tell you this. The rain ended and the sea of humanity which had seemed to suddenly part has miraculously reappeared and I resumed my five clicks at 5 pm. And as the sun came out to bid adieu for the day, and what did I see up in the sky? Yeah I saw the most beautiful rainbow. One of my most memorable moments in life on a so called real bad day. And I smiled yet again.