Hope

Every morning as I rush to catch my bus, I see a young man sitting near the ‘chai-wala’ or at the sidewalks, with a smile pasted on his lips. I never remember seeing as much as a frown on his face, just the same affable smile. Once I catch my bus, is it there thinking, wondering – what makes a man, leading such miserable life, to smile all day? I juggle my mind with so many theories about the enigmatic smile, that the hour long boring bus trip from my home to office turns into an exciting mental warfare!

Then one day it happened.

I was standing at the stop, waiting for my unusually late bus when I heard a soft chuckle. I turned around to see the man himself standing there, with the trademark smile of his, looking at me with a puppy face. I couldn’t restrain myself from asking him what he did for living. His lips spread wider as he told me simply ‘nothing’.

That bus journey was the longest as far as I can remember. My mind and heart were in turmoil. My heart feeling pity for his state while my mind couldn’t make out the reason for his smile.

The next day I went to him and subtly asked him for the reason of his smile. His reply was very simple, yet it took me quite some time to unravel the significance of it. He said “its hope”!

Suddenly I could fantasize him as the perfect model for the wallpaper-quote “Never stop smiling because someone might be falling in love with it”. It got me thinking – ‘wasn’t this 4 letter word the biggest driving factor for many lives?’

Each one of us lives in constant hope. We face the harsh today, hoping for a better tomorrow. Haven’t we all, at some point of our lives, felt that nothing is going our way? But we hold on, hoping against the hopes, for a better and brighter tomorrow.

Hope is the one thing which always finds itself at the back of the mind of every optimist, the one thing which keeps so many people going however tough their times might be, the one thing which brings smile to the unknown stranger of my everyday life.

People say that ‘hope’ is overrated! I, on the other hand, have felt it to be severely underrated. It has been my ‘good Samaritan’ throughout my bad times. Everyday as I walk out of my door, I hope. Every time my life seems shitty, I hope. Each day I hope. I know I would me evincing for many people when I day that hope is something I live for. I hope at all times, for a wonderful life, the serene comfort and great times. But do I hope for the impossible? No, I don’t think so, because I believe that a man has the capability to change his fate, and I believe that if you really want something badly, or just hope for it bad enough, one fine day you just might wake up living the ‘impossible’.