Mehak Tejani's Speech for Voice your Thoughts 2006 (18th November 2006)

Mother Teresa: Every time you smile at someone, it is an action of love, a gift to that person… a beautiful thing. Last week I was having a very bad Wednesday. It was a terrible, terrible day…everything was going wrong. As I walked through the corridor of my school, this young boy, whose name I didn’t know, looked at me innocently and gave me a quick and a small, but a beautiful smile. Without even thinking to myself, almost reflexively, I smiled back at him. Instantly feeling positive, I kept that smile on as I continued walking. After a second, I came across another girl, who looked just like me a few minutes ago. I smiled at her and in her reply came a sweet smile. As I say this now, I can see almost all of you, smiling to yourselves too J A smile, which takes less than a millisecond and almost no effort at all, is an action of love, a gift to that person… a beautiful thing, says Mother Teresa and I doubt if anyone over here or anywhere in the world would disagree with that. As they say, actions speak louder than words; a smile is an action worth a thousand such words. That day, when the young kid smiled at me, I felt him whisper in my ears that everything will be alright, have faith. At that time, God had taken his form to come tell me that I wasn’t alone. When you smile at someone, without even realizing, you make an amazing impact on him/her. It may be that that someone may have heard the most awful news of his life or even the greatest, a smile to him would make him feel loved, cared and belonged. It doesn’t matter what age you are, it doesn’t matter what cast you are, it doesn’t matter which religion you belong to and it definitely doesn’t matter whether what gender – a smile will always be a smile and will always carry the same effect and weight and the same message – the message of love, happiness, and togetherness. It will always be a gift to the one who receives it, a truly beautiful gift.