A reason to smile..

I realised as I grow older, the number of times I smiled in a day, is drastically reducing. I was wondering if, the reasons to smile have become less? Or, just that I have stopped appreciating those little things, which once made me smile. 

A new dress made me smile when I was a kid, the smell of rain, an unexpected holiday, going to a movie, a window seat in a bus, so many little things that made me smile, are now slowly fading away. There are so many problems, responsibilities and worries in life now, that, these things have taken a backseat. Wow, I have officially become a boring adult!

I don't sing out loud anymore or try out different hairstyles or change my mobile wallpaper everyday. I don't keep fancy mobile ringtones anymore. I don't buy expensive stationary anymore. I don't even care if it's my birthday - duh! I am just growing old. Is this how it feels to be a grown up? This sucks. 

I was thinking about all this, while I was travelling in bus to work. I checked my reflection on the mobile screen and wondered when those lips last curved upward. But only till that particular bus stop arrived.

A little girl (maybe 4-5yrs old) was with her grandfather in that particular bus stop to send her mother off to work. Her mother got inside the bus and looked out of the window and waved at that little girl. The girl was so happy, her whole face lit up with a broad smile. She jumped up and down, and waved at her mother with so much joy. It was such a pleasing sight and I could sense that my lips slowly curved up.

This happens every single day. Now I have started looking forward to that particular bus stop every day. Just the look of that little girl's face makes me smile and my day is done. Then I thought there are still beautiful things existing in this world, but I have just stopped noticing - just like a baby's laughter goes unnoticed in a crowded bus. People just complain when a baby cries. 

I feel like I am travelling very fast in a highway road, so fast that, I cannot look anywhere, except forward towards my destination, and suddenly, a tiny butterfly flaps its beautiful wings and flies next to me and says - look at me and smile.

To that little girl who has given me a reason to smile...