Smile: Why is it important?

...not just because it hides your pain but because it gives a reason to others to smile as well. Yes, problems exist everywhere, in everyone’s life. You may say that it is not possible to smile all the time. You are sad sometimes so you just are but don’t let that sadness occupy you. Don’t let that sad expression be your trademark. Don’t let people say that he/she is always sulky. It is good to be yourself but it is important to note down those negative drawbacks in your personality and exchange them with nature for a better thing. You cannot be sad with everything around you. There are so many things to cherish. I am sure, if you look around, you will find something exciting within your diameter. If you don’t find it in human beings, you will find it in pets, go get that cute pup. Even if that doesn’t work, there is environment, the vast environment. Look at the beauty of leaves falling from tress. Look at the flowers blooming on branches, smile at them and you will find them smiling back to you. Be at college, be at home, be at workplace, wear your smile, wear your positivity. Be a reason for spreading smile and not for someone’s frown wondering about your sulky face.

Extract from a speech of Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam

YOU say that our government is inefficient.
YOU say that our laws are too old.
YOU say that the municipality does not pick up the garbage.
YOU say that the phones don’t work, the railways are a joke, the airline is the worst in the world, mails never reach their destination.
YOU say that our country has been fed to the dogs and is the absolute pits.
YOU say, say and say.

What do YOU do about it?

Take a person on his way to Singapore. Give him a name – YOURS.

Give him a face – YOURS. YOU walk out of the airport and you are at your International best.

In Singapore you don’t throw cigarette butts on the roads or eat in the stores. YOU wouldn’t dare to eat in public during Ramadan, in Dubai. YOU would not dare to go out without your head covered in Jeddah. YOU would not dare to buy an employee of the telephone exchange in London at 10 pounds (Rs.650) a month to “see to it that my STD and ISD calls are billed to someone else.” YOU would not dare to speed beyond 55 mph (88 km/h) in Washington and then tell the traffic cop, “Jaanta hai sala main kaun hoon (Do you know who I am?). I am so and so’s son. Take your two bucks and get lost.”  YOU wouldn’t chuck an empty coconut shell anywhere other than the garbage pail on the beaches in Australia and New Zealand. Why don’t YOU spit Paan on the streets of Tokyo? Why don’t YOU use examination jockeys or buy fake certificates in Boston? We are still talking of the same YOU. YOU who can respect and conform to a foreign system in other countries but cannot in your own.

Once in an interview, the famous Ex-municipal commissioner of Bombay, Mr. Tinaikar, had a point to make. “Rich people’s dogs are walked on the streets to leave their affluent droppings all over the place,” he said.” And then the same people turn around to criticize and blame the authorities for inefficiency and dirty pavements. What do they expect the officers to do? Go down with broom every time their dog feels the pressure in his bowels? In America every dog owner has to clean up after his pet has done the job. Same in Japan. Will the Indian citizen do that here?” He’s right.

So who’s going to change the system? What does a system consist of? Very conveniently for us it consists of our neighbours, other households, other cities, other communities and the government. But definitely not me and YOU. When it comes to us actually making a positive contribution to the system we lock ourselves along with our families into a safe cocoon and look into the distance at countries far away and wait for a Mr. Clean to come along; work miracles for us.

Everybody is out to abuse and rape the country. Nobody thinks of feeding the system. Our conscience is mortgaged to money.

Fear: It’s just a myth

Are you afraid of showing yourself? Are you afraid of vocalizing yourself? Are you afraid of expressing yourself? Are you even afraid of saying a ‘yes’ to these questions even when this is actually what you want to say but you won’t just because you don’t want to look dumb in front of people?

But pal, here, let me tell you, facing your weaknesses is never dumb. You won’t be able to overcome them unless you face them, accept them and decide to run over them. The fear, the hesitation that doesn’t let us do it is nothing but just a myth. It’s not that you are afraid of other people but you are afraid of your own. That doesn’t actually exist, you create it. But, while we are creating, why create something that is not just a good creation, let’s build up something good, at least let’s try.

If people laugh at you, you too laugh on yourself. This will shed their tooth. Don’t think you are a tiny part of this world. You aren’t. You are a complete world and everything else is just your tiny part. Identify yourself. Identify your strength. Identify your parts. Pull them together and you will feel yourself as a highly charged atom bomb that can just explode anywhere.

Trust me, you are not a leaf that will just fall down in autumn and someone will just crush you under their foot and walk away. No, you are a tree, a flourishing tree, getting more and more and more strength with every single passing moment by nature. Look around yourself, look at the nature around you, look at the goodness around you. It’s all waiting for you to just give them a sign. Shed the leaves that are not just good for you and welcome the new leaves, all fresh and green. Let that old branch break and fall down even if that part has to remain empty. It’s better to stay empty instead of having something that is a hindrance in your growth but trust me on one more thing, nothing stays empty. The shed leaves and branches will work like a fertilizer for you. You are the in-charge of your life. Adorn it with everything you want to enjoy. Adorn it with everything that makes you feel good. Adorn it with gems or adorn it with stones but it should be something that gives you strength.