The big Indian heart

Before going back to India I read the book “Shantaram” by Gregory David Roberts. It was a wonderful preparation for my first visit to Cochin in Kerala. In the autobiographical book Roberts, an Australian escapee, talks about his experience in India, Bombay to be more precise. While I was sightseeing in the former colonial town of Cochin a few of Roberts' observations of India and its people resounded in my head. The most striking thing about India, according to Roberts, is the big heart of its people: if someone smiles, and smile they do often, they smile with their whole heart. They send out beams that light about any room. Like Sukesh, an employee at a local hotel I stayed at, who beamed his Colgate-smile, amplified through his snowy white teeth and dark complexion, at anyone within range. Whoever talked to him got a few minutes of pure, unfiltered happiness, delivered instantly through his smile. Or Edgar, the suave hotel owner from Goa-descent (henceforth his name) who had calming eyes that paid rested on anyone talking to him. And the cook in a local restaurant who couldn't stop smiling after I told him that his Kerala-style shrimp Masala was the best I had so far. And it is this very smile that so often is missing in my hometown.