A plastic surgery that I wish I had
The late Mr. ‘KTC’ Abdullah was a great actor and I loved him in his movie - Sudani from Nigeria. This is a scene from that film with a master class in acting where he tells Samuel from Nigeria that he is Majeed’s father. After a pause, he repeats in a whisper - Father.
You can watch the movie with subtitles to understand the significance of that scene and why he says that twice. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHyaTJGmN4k&ab_channel=HappyHoursEntertainments
Sometimes I hope for a face like his.
A face that has a permanent smile on it; as if the person cannot do anything but smile in peace, wisdom, clarity and contentment; a person who smiles through calamity, heart break, setbacks, disappointments and the lows of life.
My father had a senior colleague like that - one Khurana uncle as we called him. His congenitally smiling face hid the fact that as a teenager he fled the partition riots in Pakistan carrying his mother on his back and then started working in Delhi, got a government job and had two children one of whom went onto become a teacher in a Delhi school and the other became an automobile engineer.
I distinctly remember that pre-dawn moment in April 1996 when my father and hundreds of other central government employees were to be airlifted to Srinagar to conduct the election to the state assembly.
I was just about to finish my BSc final exams and had gone to drop my father to his office near the boat club of Delhi and met Khurana uncle there. He greeted me warmly, shook my hands and patted my back.
Many of my father’s colleagues including Khurana uncle had reached the office the previous night and were given dinner packs and were also provided breakfast packets to be carried onto the Srinagar flight.
Khurana uncle and others opened the packet in front of me and when they saw the stale food, he said in typical Delhi lingo: “Bhencho… if the air hostesses see us eating this food on the flight, they would laugh at us.”
Everyone burst off laughing.
Only my father just looked on expressionless. He was trying his best not to laugh at that expletive in front of me.
Even I had to fight hard to contain my laughter in front of all those grown ups who were going to various parts of Kashmir without any real guarantee of their safety or return to their loved ones.
But what stayed on in my mind since then - 29 years since that day; is the smiling face of Khurana uncle when he said that.
Even as Khurana uncle said all that, his face and eyes shone of a gentle kindness.
We lost touch with him sometime in 1999 before the advent of mobile phones. Nobody in my father’s circle has his new phone number.
Even as I don’t have his photo to share with the other two, I will forever remember his kind eyes and ever smiling face.
Then a couple of years back I came across this inspiring story of a school principal in Louisiana, USA who just cannot frown and has a permanent smile on his face.
Watch the short 3 minute story by my favourite journalist Steve Hartman to find out why that story is inspiring. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=an5hmEtFMco&ab_channel=CBSEveningNews
I have always wished to have the same when I look at the face of the late actor Mr. ’KTC’ Abdullah, the school principal from the US and each time I remember Khurana uncle.
As I remember their faces, I have often wondered if pasting such a permanent smile on my face with plastic surgery would permanently alter my mirror neurons for good - good for me and good the world!!
That way I can never frown or show anger on my face even if I wanted to and hopefully spread more smiles in a world that is hell bent on tearing itself apart.
I hope…
Like my friend Mehul K Mangal wrote about me some years back - Nafrat ke bazaar me muskurahat ki chhoti si ek dukaan hai meri.
😌🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽
You can watch the movie with subtitles to understand the significance of that scene and why he says that twice. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHyaTJGmN4k&ab_channel=HappyHoursEntertainments
Sometimes I hope for a face like his.
A face that has a permanent smile on it; as if the person cannot do anything but smile in peace, wisdom, clarity and contentment; a person who smiles through calamity, heart break, setbacks, disappointments and the lows of life.
My father had a senior colleague like that - one Khurana uncle as we called him. His congenitally smiling face hid the fact that as a teenager he fled the partition riots in Pakistan carrying his mother on his back and then started working in Delhi, got a government job and had two children one of whom went onto become a teacher in a Delhi school and the other became an automobile engineer.
I distinctly remember that pre-dawn moment in April 1996 when my father and hundreds of other central government employees were to be airlifted to Srinagar to conduct the election to the state assembly.
I was just about to finish my BSc final exams and had gone to drop my father to his office near the boat club of Delhi and met Khurana uncle there. He greeted me warmly, shook my hands and patted my back.
Many of my father’s colleagues including Khurana uncle had reached the office the previous night and were given dinner packs and were also provided breakfast packets to be carried onto the Srinagar flight.
Khurana uncle and others opened the packet in front of me and when they saw the stale food, he said in typical Delhi lingo: “Bhencho… if the air hostesses see us eating this food on the flight, they would laugh at us.”
Everyone burst off laughing.
Only my father just looked on expressionless. He was trying his best not to laugh at that expletive in front of me.
Even I had to fight hard to contain my laughter in front of all those grown ups who were going to various parts of Kashmir without any real guarantee of their safety or return to their loved ones.
But what stayed on in my mind since then - 29 years since that day; is the smiling face of Khurana uncle when he said that.
Even as Khurana uncle said all that, his face and eyes shone of a gentle kindness.
We lost touch with him sometime in 1999 before the advent of mobile phones. Nobody in my father’s circle has his new phone number.
Even as I don’t have his photo to share with the other two, I will forever remember his kind eyes and ever smiling face.
Then a couple of years back I came across this inspiring story of a school principal in Louisiana, USA who just cannot frown and has a permanent smile on his face.
Watch the short 3 minute story by my favourite journalist Steve Hartman to find out why that story is inspiring. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=an5hmEtFMco&ab_channel=CBSEveningNews
I have always wished to have the same when I look at the face of the late actor Mr. ’KTC’ Abdullah, the school principal from the US and each time I remember Khurana uncle.
As I remember their faces, I have often wondered if pasting such a permanent smile on my face with plastic surgery would permanently alter my mirror neurons for good - good for me and good the world!!
That way I can never frown or show anger on my face even if I wanted to and hopefully spread more smiles in a world that is hell bent on tearing itself apart.
I hope…
Like my friend Mehul K Mangal wrote about me some years back - Nafrat ke bazaar me muskurahat ki chhoti si ek dukaan hai meri.
😌🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽
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