Smiles of India
People here smile. Not everyone, not all the time, but often enough to notice. Their smile seems different from smiles of Eastern Europeans, who's smiles often have a conflicted, self-conscious and sarcastic nature.
Their smiles are also different from the smiles of North America, where smiling is often a superficial ritual, a kind of socially useful facial gymnastics.
People here seem to have their smiles spreading from the very center of their being, from their heart. Almost child-like, undefended, no holding back...
In Dharamsala you can experience luminous smiles of old Tibetans, who when greeted with "Tashi Delek!" (Hello, How are you!), bath you in their generous smiles.
Walking along the streets you may see an Indian shop keeper, squatting in front of his shop, intently looking into distance, out of the troubled history of India, his eye brows knitted together, his look is hard and intense. Yet, if you make an eye contact and smile, the widest and very genuine smiles would often flood his face.. Somehow the harsh and the soft coexist in him side by side..both gaining full expression.
Often they do not smile at you first (after all, "foreigner" we were told is a dirty word in India), but in my experience they almost inevitable respond to my small smiling initiatives.
