I remember reading somewhere that when the Olympic Games came to China, one of the first things the organisers did was to 'teach' people how to smile.
It struck me as funny. Isn't it natural for people to smile?
I do.
I smile when I meet my friends, colleagues, the security guard at work, my mailman, the flower-seller on my street. Hell, I even smile at the istriwallah who loves to snarl a new and 'improved' price every time I take my clothes to him to iron.
Then I travelled abroad. And I realised I was in desperate need of some of China's 'how to smile' classes.
I remember my first day on foreign soil. I had decided to take a stroll along a pretty river-side path. While taking in the sights, I passed many of the locals who had come out for their evening constitution or to take their dogs for a run.
I observed them casually, and I walked on - not a glimmer of a smile on my face. I didn't think I had to smile at them. After all, I didn't know any of them. And I don't smile at strangers. I've been conditioned so.
I mean, think about it. Back home, if I randomly smiled at a stranger, I would either get a puzzled look as thanks for my efforts or maybe a vague mutter that hinted that I was a few marbles short of the full set.
So you can imagine my surprise when, a couple of strides into my poker-faced walk, I was hailed by a series of cheery "hellos" and "good days", with a few "great evening to be out" and "lovely weather we are having" thrown in.
Thinking back, I guess I shouldn't have been surprised. It's not like I haven't heard of how friendly foreigners are. Many of my friends had told me about it. But since they had either gone abroad on work or as tourists, I had assumed the friendliness they encountered had been a result of either work-place courtesy or the joy of a tourism-dependant country excited about all the moolah they were going to blow on their shores.
So it took me a little while to understand that courtesy was just the way of life on these foreign shores. I came across it every other minute.
I would walk into a store, unwittingly ignoring the person behind the counter, only to have him or her approach me with a beaming smile to enquire about my day and if I was having a good time.
I soon began to change. I greeted every shopkeeper I met, every shop assistant who came to help me, and smiled at EVERY SINGLE PERSON I met while out on my evening walks.
But I must admit, the 'smiling' didn't get any easier. I had to constantly be on my guard, and keep reminding myself to acknowledge other human beings. A moment of forgetfulness and I would lapse back into my poker-faced days!
And just as I was getting the hang of exercising my facial muscles, I came back home!
Needless to say, once on homeground, a few hard stares and dark mutters soon killed my budding smile. A fact I feel sad about.
Courtesy breeds courtesy. And in India, where we mistrust strangers, it's something we desperately need. My logic: if you smile at a person, you would think twice before being rude to the very same person.
How different would government offices be, if the employees smiled at everyone who walked in the door? How much safer would the roads be if people acknowledged others as human beings deserving of some courtesy?
It's not a cure-all; just something that will make each day a little better and a little brighter.
Maybe it's time one of us tracked down the telephone number of the people who taught the Chinese to smile!
It struck me as funny. Isn't it natural for people to smile?
I do.
I smile when I meet my friends, colleagues, the security guard at work, my mailman, the flower-seller on my street. Hell, I even smile at the istriwallah who loves to snarl a new and 'improved' price every time I take my clothes to him to iron.
Then I travelled abroad. And I realised I was in desperate need of some of China's 'how to smile' classes.
I remember my first day on foreign soil. I had decided to take a stroll along a pretty river-side path. While taking in the sights, I passed many of the locals who had come out for their evening constitution or to take their dogs for a run.
I observed them casually, and I walked on - not a glimmer of a smile on my face. I didn't think I had to smile at them. After all, I didn't know any of them. And I don't smile at strangers. I've been conditioned so.
I mean, think about it. Back home, if I randomly smiled at a stranger, I would either get a puzzled look as thanks for my efforts or maybe a vague mutter that hinted that I was a few marbles short of the full set.
So you can imagine my surprise when, a couple of strides into my poker-faced walk, I was hailed by a series of cheery "hellos" and "good days", with a few "great evening to be out" and "lovely weather we are having" thrown in.
Thinking back, I guess I shouldn't have been surprised. It's not like I haven't heard of how friendly foreigners are. Many of my friends had told me about it. But since they had either gone abroad on work or as tourists, I had assumed the friendliness they encountered had been a result of either work-place courtesy or the joy of a tourism-dependant country excited about all the moolah they were going to blow on their shores.
So it took me a little while to understand that courtesy was just the way of life on these foreign shores. I came across it every other minute.
I would walk into a store, unwittingly ignoring the person behind the counter, only to have him or her approach me with a beaming smile to enquire about my day and if I was having a good time.
I soon began to change. I greeted every shopkeeper I met, every shop assistant who came to help me, and smiled at EVERY SINGLE PERSON I met while out on my evening walks.
But I must admit, the 'smiling' didn't get any easier. I had to constantly be on my guard, and keep reminding myself to acknowledge other human beings. A moment of forgetfulness and I would lapse back into my poker-faced days!
And just as I was getting the hang of exercising my facial muscles, I came back home!
Needless to say, once on homeground, a few hard stares and dark mutters soon killed my budding smile. A fact I feel sad about.
Courtesy breeds courtesy. And in India, where we mistrust strangers, it's something we desperately need. My logic: if you smile at a person, you would think twice before being rude to the very same person.
How different would government offices be, if the employees smiled at everyone who walked in the door? How much safer would the roads be if people acknowledged others as human beings deserving of some courtesy?
It's not a cure-all; just something that will make each day a little better and a little brighter.
Maybe it's time one of us tracked down the telephone number of the people who taught the Chinese to smile!
