16th March 2014
Smiles are precious in cities and the honest ones are rare to find. During my time exploring the dusty bylanes of rural India or on one of those many chai stops on my motorcycle journeys, I have time and again chanced upon a smile that had the power to take me to that now faraway destination called pure joy.
Having spent most of February backpacking through Rajasthan and then joining the Kerala Blog Express as part of the team of travel bloggers, the exhaustion had just begun to set in. While on the trip, we were taken on a walk through the quaint little village of Kumarakom which was a pioneering responsible tourism project initiated by Kerala Tourism. As we approached the village on a country boat, we were welcomed by a sprightly bunch of kids dressed in their tidy school uniforms. Standing atop one of the many over-bridges that spanned the narrow backwater, the kids made for the perfect welcome with all the excited jumping and waving. They were as excited to see us as we were to see them. As most travellers would know, the sight of happy children is always a welcome event and this wasn’t any different.
Excited school kids welcoming the boats.
Calling out to us Bollywood style.
But once we had parked the boat, something caught my eye. There was this one little girl who stood alone watching all the activity from a corner with curiosity in her eyes. She seemed to be in a different imaginary world as she broke into a giggle all of a sudden and that moment was frozen in my mind.
Even though I wasn’t a part of her imaginary world, she seemed to share her amusement with me and I couldn’t help but smile. It was as if she had unknowingly granted me access to a place where happiness was a way of life. I felt relaxed and the clouds of weariness had cleared to let in those much needed rays of sunshine.
She had shown me an aspect of village life that I seemed to miss so much without even having experienced it before. A moment of realization; of suddenly knowing where I wanted to be and what I wanted from life. An honest smile, without pretense, was a life giver and I wanted to feel alive. That little girl had without an effort gifted me what was now ‘my precious’!
She observed all the sudden activity with curiosity.
Something amused her and she broke into a giggle.
She was Happiness.
