I want to play a game, will you play it with me? It’s really easy, in fact I am sure you already know how to play it. You want to try it with me now? Okay, ready?
Take a deep breath and then extend the corners of your lips upwards by spreading them slightly, you should feel the pressure on your cheeks, some teeth may show (it’s okay if they do), some of you may even get a dimple or two.
What is it you say? I am pulling your leg? I am just trying to make your face smile? I tricked you into smiling, and your mind doesn’t appreciate it? Wait, oh you say it does? Well, you’re welcome then! I am glad to have made your lips move upwards and expose your teeth to sunlight.
Now it’s your turn, you have to make me smile. How you ask? Well, I am actually quite easy to please. Really! I tell you what, the next time you see me, or someone like me, or someone not like me at all, can you return the favour and smile at them? You will look foolish you think? What if they smile back? They never do, you say? Are you sure? What a pity!
You say Dhaka carries the “no-smiling-at-strangers-disease”? You say you barely even smile at acquaintances. Girls don’t smile at girls, and boys don't smile at boys? And girls absolutely don’t smile at boys unless they are “you-know-what-kind”?
And what kind might that be? Oh, you don’t know? What’s that? Only mischievous guys smile at females expressing not so nice interests? You say a smile is not just a smile? You say it’s an invitation? Invitation to do what exactly? Smile back?
What else can a smile mean, if it doesn’t carry any intention but that of just smiling? You say it’s more complicated and these random smiles might scare people off? Well, it might not be so bad to weed out the “Ramgorurer chhanas”? What? You say you are one too?
Okay, I will make it easier for you. The next time you get out on the street, you will make eye contact with the same sex won’t you? I am going to assume you are okay with smiling at the same sex, that this will not cause too much confusion regarding intentions (we can only pray that one day we can freely smile at the opposite sex without being misinterpreted).
So, will you smile at a stranger of the same sex? If you are a woman, smile at another woman, girl, lady, if you are kind enough, maybe even at the third gender? If you are a man, smile at all the other men on the street, or you can pick your favourites. You will meet many eyes, let your lips get involved too? Smile at a stranger, or four, or eight? And then, stop counting.
There are so many one-off campaigns we run, screaming our lungs out. We run after issues, flags and mascots are pulled out of the air and then vanished the same way.
Issues die, or our enthusiasm dies, people change and life changes faster. So what’s the point of trying something new, you say?
This will just be a waste of time? What if I supplied you with unlimited strangers everyday (just get out on the street today, I promise they will be there).
Please find a stranger, and without judging what their mouth may hold for you (most likely just a set of teeth very much like yours), just smile will you? In all our stiffness, madness, angry shut mouths, can we be kind and pick a day? Any day? Today? Let’s try this out. I will look out for you girl, from the dimple of my right, give me a smile back. I promise, we will both feel light.
