मुस्कुराना है हुस्न की दौलत,
                                                          मुस्कुराना ना भूल जाया करो
                                [Smiling is the charm of beauty; do not thus forget to smile]

Do you want to be a person who walks into the room and lights it up with your smile.
            यूँ मुस्कुराए वो कि, कलियों में जान सी पड़ गई ।
                           यूँ लबकुशां हुए कि, गुलिस्ताँ बना दिया ॥

 [When she smiled, the buds became alive and when she spoke, it turned into a bed of flowers.]

Smile comes more naturally to some persons than others, but like any other habit, smiling can become more natural with practice. So much so that you can see some faces which almost appear smiling. Smiling is a very powerful expression for the emotion of pleasure. Smiling raises your own spirit as it makes other people around you more happy & friendly to you. It even enhances the beauty of anybody’s’ face and in particular the otherwise handsome or beautiful faces. It’s therefore said that.
                           मुस्कुराना है हुस्न की दौलत; मुस्कुराना ना भूल जाया करो
               [Smile is the wealth / Charm of the beauty; hence don’t forget to smile]

How can one enhance the charm of his/her smile or laugh, is the object of this article. Let us see how?

Step 1: Improving the charm / look of your smile:-
Have you ever heard of an ‘Easy Smile’? People with easy smiles break into a grin effortlessly, thereby making everybody around them more friendly to them and happy with them. Generally every photographer likes to capture candid pictures. So they ask you before taking photographs, ‘Smile Please’. But smiles are fading away in our day to day life. The stress levels are going up, timelines are getting shorter and our patience levels have almost reached to zero. The surmounting challenges in the life have killed the emotion of pleasure so how can it get manifested in the shape of a charming smile. It surely appears as if smiling is an allegation on the busy persons of the day.
In the words of Hamid Sahrai,

है सरापा दर्द मेरी ज़िन्दगी, मुस्कुराना मुझ पे इक इलज़ाम है ।
                 [My whole life is full of pains; hence smiling is a blemish or allegation on me.]

But what we are proposing here is not only smiling but improving upon the charm of smile. Let us follow the ideas given below;
(A) Practice smiling a lot: - When you practice a lot, smiling becomes easier and you look less strained when you do it. Practice what you feel to be your most attractive smile. Soon your confidence in your smiling will increase and you will start smiling without first conceiving it i.e. spontaneously. Look at your photos smiling in different ways. When do you look better, smiling with your mouth closed or smiling with your mouth open? From which angle this smile of you, have lit up your face the most? Which smile displays your other features to the best of their charm adding to the beauty of your face? Which smile comes across the most natural on your face? Practice before a mirror to emote that very smile which you have liked the best. Practice to give it again and again until you start getting it effortlessly and just in the right way. Getting to the inner feeling which gives rise to that just smile will help you to replicate it without looking into the mirror. Practice smiling at random strangers. Just make an eye contact with any one and give that smile. Not everyone will smile back and some may even look at your scornfully, but ignore it. But when someone will respond to it with his/her own charming smile. You will feel immensely happy.

(B) Smile with Your Eyes : A whole hearted smile will naturally draw in the eyes. This natural smile is called Duchene Smile. It’s not something one can fake. It’s only when you really feel like smiling that you flash a Duchene. The eyes are essential to reflect a genuine warm smile. To get practiced for such smile, again you have to stand in front of a mirror and practice smiling, while concentrating on your eyes only. It may be helpful to cover your lower face and lip. Play around with it a bit, and you will find that you can make your mouth smile where your eyes are not smiling, and gradually your can also smile only with your eyes. When your eyes do smile, remember how it feels, which muscles are working and how. With little efforts, you will discover how to smile with your eyes at your will on the basis of your feelings and the facial muscle experience.

(C) Maintaining good oral hygiene: - People are sometimes avoiding to smile for the fear of exposing bad teeth or bad breadth. Eliminate both these worries by keeping your mouth fresh and clean. Brush your teeth and tongue regularly. Carry floss with you wherever you go, so that you can clean up after dining and have breath freshener with you ready to be used on need. See your dentist regularly for teeth check up and cleaning, or even straightening them if required. This will help you in making better impression and will also raise your confidence level for smiling. Keep your lips also in great shape to prevent their drooping distortion.

Step 2: Smiling for Right Reasons: -

While it is possible to smile even when you are terrible, angry, annoyed, or when you are up to something nefarious, the smile will to be genuine and it certainly will make people wary of you. A genuine smile cannot be faked, hence, you should make your smile genuine which will be certainly accompanied by a general glow, smiling eyes and reassuring demeanour. This smile will make the viewer to feel more at ease in your presence. The question however is, how to make your smile genuine. Yes, you can make your smile genuine! Some suggestions are given below:

(A) Lead a Happily Life: In spite of all the miseries and causes of negativity all around you, you can be positive in your approach and can learn to ignore and avoid negative feelings to dominate your mindset and as result, can live happily. One thing sure, don’t smile when you are not feeling it, as there is no need for it. Rather it will lead people to distrust you. A genuine smile comes from being happy, positive and by drawing the happiness from your heart. You can be happy for many things, such as, things going well otherwise, person you are talking to seems to be happy, he has cracked a funny joke, the sun is very bright but cool, weather is very fine, you about to eat some good food. There are so many reasons to be happy, and to smile. Think about them, they are very good reason for a genuine smile. These reasons are always there, even when you are not feeling cheerful on some account. When you are confronted with a person or a situation, that make you ambivalent and you are not sure to be solemn or smiling. Err on the side of smiling. Even if you have only one reason to be happy while having several other reasons not to be happy, use that that single reason to create a genuine smile. This is called as being Bright & Sunny. So you should be bright & Sunny.

(B) Smile out of Love and Empathy for others; think about someone you love and you care for, or about something you genuinely love to do. You should also learn to love what you are doing. It’s much easier to produce friendly easy going, genuine smiles, when you love what to do. When you love people around you and when you love the humanity in general. You can have a benign smile on your face. Be happy and grateful for all that which you have and see that smile comes far more naturally to you.

(C) Be playful and jolly: Times can make all of us very serious. But one should see life as an adventure. Be kind of gentle to yourself and allow the child within you to play. Being playful and a bit childish can bring a smile to your face much more easily.

Step 3: Make the Smile Part of Everyday Life:-

(A) Smiles attract attention! but it’s a right kind of attention we are holding back our smiles out of the fear that it will make people wonder about you or they will misinterprets your smile. But these worries are unnecessary, so as you go about spending your day, consider ways by which you can smile, as smiling makes your world a more positive place Smiling at work or at any other professional occasions is not going to make you unprofessional or non serious to your task; quite the opposite, a smile will humanize you and will make you more approachable. People will appreciate your recognition of their worth and of a job well done when you smile.  A smile makes you seem ‘real’, if you are appearing to be vulnerable when you smile, accept that any form of vulnerability suggested by a smile is what makes it such a powerful act. You are opening up to others and people will respond better to that, than to a serious, unmoved demeanour. Moreover, a smile accompanied by an assertive personality will take care of any sense that people will use your smile to walk all over you.

(B) Smiling can be very difficult in many situations for example, smiling on demand can be difficult, whether it’s for a photo or for the sake of keeping your mother happy when the relatives you can’t stand are vesting your place. This is because you are feeling self conscious or you lack a genuine reason for smiling. In these sort of situations, smile need to come from your memories of good smiles along with a little self kidding, or a joke working on your mind. On such occasion, you should attempt smiling as you mean it. For a photograph smile 20% more than you think you should. Smile wide to show the top row of your teeth. Don’t forget to use your eyes also. You will get a photograph on which everyone will have a approving and appreciating smile as they will certainly like it.

Step 4: Count the benefits of Smile and enjoy it:

In order to smile, it really helps to know the benefits a smile can bring to your day. The following benefits are bound to make you lean towards sharing a grin with others most of the day.

A.        Smile improves your appearance: According to Charles Gordy, ‘A smile is an inexpensive way to change your looks. Who looks better? A person who is frowning or a person who is smiling? Who tends to look better? Obviously the person who is smiling. So why you should look better!

B.        Smile deals with your negative emotions: Smile makes the things right again and say much more then the words can. If you have goofed, said something less than complementary, feel lost or lonely or down, a hearty smile can restore the balance. Smile leads to secretion of endorphin.

C.        Smile creates an instant rapport and ultimate trust for you amongst others: Smile lets other people know that you are prepared to be friendly with them and ready to open up. If it comes in response to a frown by someone whom you have harmed unintentionally then it creates an impression that you are feeling sorry and are ready to make amends with them if needed. A smile is greatest way of creating empathy among others for you and it is both in one to one interaction as well as in a gathering. Smiling faces at both the places are symbols of enjoying the company of each other.

D.        Even wrinkles are better when they are smiling lines. Mark Twain has said, “Wrinkles should merely indicate where the smile have been.

E.         Smiling is a good long term indicator of a successful life and is also a long term predictor of happier and more successful outcomes in every walk of life.

F.         Smile is a great defence mechanism. If someone attempts to bring your spirits down, smile at him and it will neutralise his negativity.

                 All poets have spoken very highly about the attraction of a charming smile. In particular, the Urdu Poets have devoted much time to this smile of the beautiful women. To quote ‘Jigar Muradabadi,
हमने सीने से लगाया, दिल न अपना बन सका । 
मुस्कुरा कर तुमने देखा, दिल तुम्हारा हो गया ॥ 

(I kept this heart of mine life long carefully in my chest but it could never become mine, but you have seen it smilingly only once and it’s now yours.)
‘Asi Ramnagari, another Urdu Poet has put this slightly differently as under:

हमने पाला मुद्द्तों पहलु में, हम कुछ भी नहीं । 
जिसने देखा मुस्कुराकर, दिल उसी का हो गया ॥
(I have nourished the heart in my chest for long but I am nothing. The heart goes to whoever sees towards it with a charming smile.)

Actually without pleasures and smiles the entire life is depicted to be a hell. ‘Niraash Jaunpuri, has very succinctly narrated this fact in the following couplet:

शामिल नहीं है जिसमें, अपनी मुस्कुराहटें । 
वह ज़िन्दगी किसी भी, जहन्नुम से कम नहीं ॥ 
(The life which doesn’t have smiles at all is just like a hell)

                In the life both pleasure as well as sorrows could be there but if one gets possessed by sorrows only even then he should smile by just saying that let me smile, I have now become bored and fed up with this sorrow. This idea of a smile even among adversities is coined in this couplet of ‘Hairat’.
ज़िन्दगी धुप छाँव है, ए दोस्त । 
ग़म से उकता के मुस्कुरा लेना ॥ 
 
                The philosophy in which persons ever suppress a benign smile has also remained in Urdu poetry but it was only for those who lost the game of love. As ‘Adeeb‘, a famous Urdu poet has narrated in the following couplet.

हमने इक हसरतें तबस्सुम को । 
कितने आँसू पिला के मारा है ॥ 

(I have controlled my desire to smile by flowing so many tears)
                One cannot understand what is good in this philosophy. But in the game of love, its being used as a weapon in general to impress the loved one, as depicted in the following couplet:

मेरे अश्कों का करिश्मा तो देखिये । 
सामने वो मुस्कुरा के आ गए ॥ 
(See the charisma of my tears; she came smiling before me to console.)

                Well, everything is said to be fair in the war and love but my philosophy is depicted only in best couplet of Urdu poetry on the philosophy of life i.e.

ज़िन्दगी ज़िंदादिली का नाम है । 
मुर्दादिल क्या ख़ाक जिया करतें हैं ॥
(Life is the name of living with joy; those who do not lead their life with joy are actually not worth living.)
I propose to end that:
हर किसी से मिलो ख़ुलूस के साथ, चार दिन की ज़िंदगानी है । 
हिर्स, गुस्सा, हसद, हविस, नफरत, सब फ़ना होने की निशानी है ॥   
(One should meet with everybody with the warmth of a charming smile as life is very short. Greed, Anger, Jealousy, Desire and Hatred, all these are negativities which will kill you.)

So; Smile Please! As smile only can behold your beauty and can make friends for you.

                                                                                                             Pavan Kumar Sharma.