Share a Smile...

Yesterday, I saw a beautiful sight. In an auto rickshaw stuck in the endless Bombay traffic, a woman travelling with three little children was having a hard time keeping them still, so she decided to buy peace with a packet of chips. She handed the packet to one of the little boys and doubtless told him to share it with everyone. The little boy having offered the packet to his siblings and his mother, promptly turned to the rickshaw driver and offered him some as well. The rickshaw driver, though at first stunned took a couple of chips from the proffered packet and then turned back to pay attention to the road. The child by now was too engrossed with something he had found in the packet that promised to be a toy when assembled and had no idea the joy he had caused and the smile that he had brought to the faces of three people, his mother, the rickshaw driver and me.

Children are the most innocent beings and they have none of the devious and cunning instincts so common among grown ups so that we have come to expect nothing but the worst from the world, while hoping for the best is a long forgotten fairy tale. Children have the ability to remind us of that tale, to show us that 'only goodness' unhampered by any ulterior motives does truly exist.