I finished my first round of document verification and I came to the waiting room. The waiting room was crowded and let alone place to sit, there was hardly any place to even stand. I stood there gazing around as I had nothing better to do! My cellphone was switched and the novel that I had carried was in my back which was with my uncle who was standing outside. And the only thing that I could do was to observe people. I saw that one of my senior from college was also waiting there. I smiled at her and she turned away. I was surprised! It wasn't that this girl was a complete stranger to me. I had met her in college and had also spoken to her a few times. I was confused and hurt with such kind of a behaviour. Was a smile such a costly thing to give?
A little disturbed by that incident I continued to observe people. And as I was looking at the people around, I saw the same lady whom I had met in the queue again. She was seated on one of the benches there. The moment I looked at her she smiled at me and she shifted a little from her seat to make some place for me to sit. She called me to sit but I didn't want her to be uncomfortable because of me. But she insisted on me sitting there beside her and I had to oblige. My legs were also paining from all the waiting in the queue and standing there.
As I sat there she started chatting with me and I asked whether she knew me and whether she had seen me before. She told that she hadn't. I was still curious about why she'd smiled before. Her answer was indeed a lovely one. She said, "I am not from here and I have come here after a tiring journey. Everywhere I looked I found strange, indifferent faces. I am generally a happy person and I can't see people not smiling. I give a smile to everyone that I meet. They may or may not smile back. But what do I have to lose? Nothing! It will not hurt me if they don't smile because they are strangers. But if they smile, may be I would get to know knew people and even if they don't talk to me maybe my smile was the first smile that they got that day and they would be happy for it. And that is why I smiled at you. And if I wouldn't have smiled at you, we wouldn't be sitting and talking here and we wouldn't have each other for company in this long wait."
I was astonished. How better a place the world could be if there were a few more of such people? I was happy to have found this lady. And my boring wait for the passport became interesting as I had now made a new friend. Those words she said will remain in my memory forever though I don't know whether I will ever be able to meet her again!
This post is also written for Day 27 of the The Ultimate Blog Challenge,