Incidental Smiles - Chhibber, Harmohanlal

. .

Résumé :
A person endowed with a sense of humor has an inner 'richness' for it often brings incidental smiles on his face. No potion, no beauty aid, no pencils and brushes can embellish a human face as the pleasant mark of an oft- worn smile does. A testy, tetchy, irascible or cantankerous person gets on his face easily discernible, disagreeable telltale clues that give him away even to his casual interlocutor. A person can smile, laugh, cut jokes or find humor only if his mind is somewhat liberated, he is not overly bogged down with every-day-cares, neither is he too self-conscious to be always self-involved. To find humor or even to fully appreciate it, it is imperative to keep some channel of mind 'open' to be ready to catch the subtle strands of others and one's own thoughts and actions. Similar is the case with Harmohan Chhibber who discovers humor where there appears none to a casual eye. Laugh and the world laughs with you. Smile and the world smiles. A smiling face indicates an affinity, a bond, a link and a companionship of the voyage of life on this floating planet. A smiling face is cynosure of all eyes. Friends in office, social circle or wherever they are cluster him or her. One who wears a smile on his face spreads sunshine and reflects a positive attitude. Harmohan Chhibber rightly exhorts his readers; ''you are not dressed for the day unless you wear a smile''. Even a casual perusal of an anecdotal narrative contained in 'incidental smiles' will convince a reader that Harmohan Chhibber can 'smell' or perceive humor instinctively. So hitch you wagon to 'Incidental Smiles' and enjoy its inherent bliss. Smile is an apparel of jovial heart and it can be therapeutic in its effect, it is also spiritual in content, it is mysterious Midas touch, an alchemy that turns every metal into gold. Smile is a 'mantra' for success and bliss. It ensures facial uplift and cheerfulness. Smile is antidote to melancholy. They say 'act young and you feel young' so wear a smile on your face and be happy. A smile can bridge the abyss between tantalizing bless and abject dejection, between friendliness and schizophrenic one-up-man ship. A beauty lies in the eye of the beholder, so dose humor lie in the mind of the humorist. Mark Twain would find humor where none exists for others. When a high dignitary-the next speaker sitting beside him commented rather presumptuously that it appeared he would be talking over the heads of the audience. Twain took the wind out of the dignitary by saying 'feel easy, they don't listen'. in case when in an 'Old boys 'meet in an institution, a dignitary in visitors' book wrote, I am what I am due to the institution. The person following him scribbled below it, Why blame the institution? When a legal luminary was a student, his teacher not being satisfied with his answer in the law class at Mumbai asked him where he had his schooling. On being told that it was at Shimla, the teacher said, Why go so far to learn so little. It is apparent that in all the above incidents there initially appears to no point of humor but a person endowed with a sense of humor will discover it to the pleasant surprise of his company. Similar is the case with Harmohan Chhibber who discovers humor where there appears none to a causal eye. Prof. P. L. Bhola