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The boy who never smiled!





These days, when even tiny toddlers have mastered art of selfie-ready smile; a cultural and social reflex of our times, I met this boy  sans the smile, who intrigued me deeply!

His piercing gaze had something fascinating about it! He was at a handicraft exhibition, looking after one of the stalls, all alone. Perhaps, his mother/father had gone somewhere. On the board at the stall was the address written of some remote village from Karnataka from where he hailed. 

It is easy for me to connect with people, strike conversation, especially children! But this boy was different. His curiosity was restrained, unlike other children of his age who always clamour around me gleefully expecting some great fun with the very sight of my lens! The boy looked intently at the lens and then at me, little shyly, observing me deeply with a sage like detachment and calm in his eyes, unruffled, as if trying to read me.

I was not sure if he was prepared for conversation so I just smiled. He acknowledged it with a small nod sans the smile! Bit frustrated, I kept wondering what kind of thoughts and experiences of the world might have etched and moulded this little angel’s mind? He was too young to have worries and pressures of life I thought as most of children his age I met at the exhibition were busy in excited chatter or were engrossed in play. 

I was about to give up when his mother arrived. Oh, what a lovely smile she had! The language barrier, made me leave the stall, waving at the boy and his mother with sense of defeat. Sad at having failed to connect the way I usually do even with complete strangers. 

I crossed a few stalls and got busy with clicking some more images when I felt tiny fingers touching my hand. The boy from the stall had followed me. He was pointing at my camera suggesting I show him pictures. Pleasantly surprised by his interest, I borrowed a stool from nearby stall and spent few minutes displaying all the images taken at the exhibition. While all my attempts to make him speak went in vain, he watched each image intently, lingering a bit longer when his own image appeared on screen, looking at me with a very subtle smile. 

He searched for something frantically from all the pockets, took out a toffee that was carefully tucked in a small handkerchief; perhaps to share it with his special friend or sibling. He removed the tiny cloth and put the toffee in his mouth with the wrapper and before I could stop him, he cut it in to two halves. He removed the wrapper, gobbled one piece and offered me larger one and vanished before I could comprehend what had just happened!

The boy who never smiled had just given me so much warmth, joy and happiness without exchange of single word or a smile! 

I packed my camera and started walking towards my car. There were many more images to capture. But I wanted to let the lesson I had just learned sink in.

There is dignity in silence and sometimes, the best words are the ones that are unspoken yet have power to strike a chord within.

The taste of that toffee I had that day was out of the world and is going to linger on my mind forever!



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