All that you need is a smile

By Ganesh - R

It was an early morning flight from Delhi to Bhopal at 6.25 am. It required me to wake up at 4 am to freshen up and drive from Gurgoan to the IGIA. Having hit the bed at 1 am the previous night, after a delayed Shatabdi ride from Morena, I was groggy, very irritable and generally in a foul mood. It would be an understatement if I say I was looking for an opportunity to scream and howl at the first opportunity! The check in process however was quick and gave me no such joy. As I walked in for the security check the first CISF guard I encountered looked at the boarding card and beamed a huge smile “Aap Bhopal jaa rahe ho Sir?”, she said. “Bahut hi sundar sheher haiji aur aap ko bahut acha lagaga … have a good trip Sirji…”. The name tag said Khushwah and she never ceased to smile as she greeted passenger after another. There were all sorts of people in the queue from old men to young kids, busy looking professionals to a relaxed tourist. And, there was also a worried elderly couple perhaps on their first trip on the plane.. all of them were greeted by Khushwah with the same cheerful smile.

As I stood there watching her performance in total awe and admiration, I realized, I was no more in the foul mood. My temper had cooled and the world around me suddenly seemed to have been transformed! It was a world full of joy, happiness and cheer and, as if driven by a magic, I had stopped noticing anything negative! That young 20 year something of a girl engaged in the most mundane and routine duty of checking the boarding cards seemed to have transformed everything around me!

It was a smile that made all the difference! Jai ho Khushwah.. (The event occurred on the 2oth Sep 2010 in case the CISF bosses desire to note)

I made it a point to walk over to her commandant and conveyed my compliments. He was pleasantly surprised having received only complaints so far. 

I had experienced a similar performance just a week ago at the Jaipur airport. It was young man of around 20 who greeted every traveler with a cheerful smile and the treatment was not reserved only for the foreigners. I had missed reading his name but made it a point to compliment his superior.

This experience encourages several conclusions:

- CISF is providing good training to its cadre.

- CISF is recruiting a good, amiable youngsters.

Whatever it may be, it augurs well.

I reproduce some quotes I found in the web which capture my experience.

“Today, give a stranger one of your smiles. It might be the only sunshine he sees all day. -Quoted in P.S. I Love You, compiled by H. Jackson Brown, Jr.”

“A smile is a curve that sets everything straight. -Phyllis Diller”

“Life is like a mirror, we get the best results when we smile at it. -Author Unknown”

“Smiling is infectious, You can catch it like the flu. Someone smiled at me today, 

And I started smiling too. -Author Unknown”

Courtesy: Scratchmysoul.com