​THE SOUND OF SMILE!

6p.m. : Sanket logout from his system and sent a WhatsApp message to Priya…

Sanket: Hi… How are you?

Priya: Yes…I’m fine. How about you?

Sanket: Just logout. When will you logout?

Priya: In 15min.

Sanket: Okay. Let’s have coffee and then I will drop you at your place!

Priya: Okay. Coming to next building CCD in 20 minutes

Sanket: Okay Ma’am. Waiting for you

At CCD…

Sanket: (with big smile on his face) Hey dear… How was your day?

Priya: (with a bit of reluctant smile) Hmm… as usual. Nothing new. How about yours?

Waiter: Hello Good evening Ma’am, good evening Sir! Your order please?

Sanket: Priya, what would you prefer?

Priya: One Cold Coffee!

Sanket: One Cold Coffee for Ma’am and One Cappuccino for me

Waiter: Thank you Sir. (He walked off) 

Sanket: I am doing good but what’s the matter with you… How’s life going on?

Priya: Wish I die at once, rather than dying every moment!

Sanket: Why are you saying like this? Is there anything wrong?

Priya: I have never expected Sanky will cheat me. Last month I caught him intimate with another girl from his company. How come he can do like this? For him I went against my parents. I pushed my life into all kinds of messy situations. I trusted him. He was my first love. I had dreamed so many beautiful things but why he did like this? Where shall I go now? What shall I do? It’s better for me to kill myself rather than dying  remembering his betrayal each moment. 

Sanket: My friend…why do you think like this? It’s good that you saw his real face quite early. Still you have better option to choose. Live your life with your parents… Keep dreaming for something better rather than that cheat. You don’t know people are in worse condition than yours.

Priya: Yes… dear. Since then my parents and their aspirations regarding me have helped me to survive. Though the days to come may be harder for me but I will try to live on.

Sanket: Okay. Good and courageous girl. Let’s go…it’s already 8 and I need to drop you as well.

Priya: Don’t worry, I will call Uber. 

Sanket: No…it’s okay. I can ride 2 km more for my dear friend.

Priya: Thank you for being so kind to me. You’re truly a good friend of mine. Wish we could have met early.

After an hour Sanket dropped Priya at her home. And with a smiling face he gave her a nice Indian hug. Kissing her forehead he said, “Stay in peace. Wish I could meet you tomorrow but…”

Priya: Wiping tears from her eyes.. thank you my dear for the love and encouragement. Why people are not like you? 

They Shook hands with each other and went their ways. Next morning at 7am  Priya sent a WhatsApp message to Sanket…

Priya: “Good morning dear. Thank you again for yesterday. Almost after one month I was able to sleep last night. It’s all because of the time spent with you. Can we meet sometime today?”

But there was no reply from the other end. She tried to phone him but his number was switched off. After 30 minutes…the phone rang. 

Priya: Hello

Other end: yes… this is Smita yaar.

Priya: oh…yes. Tell me

Smita: Did you hear the news?

Priya: What news?

Smita: Arre…yaar about Sanket!

Priya: (very worried and in loud voice) What happened to him?

Smita: Rahul phoned me and said… Sanket hung himself last night in his bedroom. Police took his dead body for post-mortem this morning. I came to know that, last week his girlfriend rejected him because he was from a middle-class family and was unable to afford her the luxuries. 

Priya: With sobbing tone… what a girl is she? Getting partner like Sanket is a blessing. But you know last night after office both of us had coffee. As I unfolded my story to him, he counseled me and encouraged me to move on leaving the past as past and so on. Even he dropped me with a nice hug, kissed on my forehead and said, “Stay in peace. Wish I could meet you tomorrow but… wait….wait…  Stay in peace. Wish I could meet you tomorrow but…

She thought for sometime thinking of those sentences what he said to her…

Priya: OMG…what a blunder I did? (slapping her forehead)

Smita: What blunder?

Priya: That’s the reason he said, I wish to meet you tomorrow but…..! How fool I am  that, I just ignored that ‘but…’

We come across this sort of stories in our walks of life… Isn’t it?

Often we meet people like Sanket. Though they carry too much of pain in their heart but still they don’t display it on their face. You will only find smile on their faces and encouraging words on their lips but they have a stories underneath their aching hearts.

It is very unique… ‘Human life begins with tears and ends with tears…’ But still there are few people who know how to smile. Because they know that smile is contagious and very effective. Smile is not just a display of emotion rather it displays relationships…it displays love…it displays care… and more over the silent words behind it are – ‘I know I have problems but still your problem is greater than mine. Can I help you?’

Though I don’t have younger sister in my family but still God has provided me a sweet lovely younger sister Alaka (her elder sister is my friend). Whenever I feel worried and in much of sorrows… I feel desperate to see her face. It’s just to see her truthful smile I search for her because I usually don’t share my problems but her smiles bring a smile on my face  spontaneously and I feel bit comforted.

Bible says, “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows”. And in context of giving smile, this is absolutely relevant. The tendency of selfish human nature is to move around in our own stories and own problems, we never tend to give a smile and look at other’s problems. We always love to wipe our tears and give tears to the other person.

But I will encourage you to ask yourself a question – 

“How many times I stood as the reason of someone else’s smile?” 

Life will begin and end with tear. That’s the reality and the perfect pattern to teach us many things. Life lessons cannot be learnt in the stillness of water, it can only be learnt facing the high waves in the seas of life. But along with the tears in heart we have to smile and look at the other person’s story. I am not giving an encouragement to reflect a plastic smile but encouraging to be a reason behind the smile.

Be a reason and read the story behind every smile or tears.

God bless you!

Avinash