A smile at the top of the tower that proved that human emotions can transcend the barriers of language, culture and geography
This happened in April 1968 on the top platform of the Eiffel Tower in Paris. Four of us from the Indian team training at the Bouwcentrum in Rotterdam had joined a three-day tour of Paris by bus during the Easter holidays. So there I was, standing atop the Eiffel Tower on a pleasant morning enjoying the magnificent view of the surroundings.
Suddenly I was distracted by the sound of a child crying inconsolably. When I looked in that direction, I found that he was a little boy of about four years. He seemed to be part of a group of three, an older woman and a younger woman with a baby sleeping on her shoulders. Women looked like mother and daughter. They appeared to be of rural origin.
The crying boy was probably the older child of the younger woman. The women were talking about different places without paying attention to the crying child. It was obvious that the boy was crying because he was smaller than the wall around the stage and could not see anything.
quick connection
I remembered my own children in remote Kerala, both of whom were almost the same age, one was about five years old and the other three years younger.
As the boy kept crying, a sudden impulse caught me and I went up to him and lifted him from behind so that he could see the magnificent view all around. He was lost in sight for a moment, then he turned his head to me and smiled. When they learned that the baby had stopped crying, the women turned to see what had happened. They must have been surprised to see their child smiling in the hands of a stranger from a distant country. He smiled and said something in French that I could not follow. I smiled and put the baby down and joined my group.
That boy must be over 50 now. He will not remember the stranger who raised him to the top of the Eiffel Tower. But the smile on his face is always fresh in my memory.
The smile that proved that fundamental human emotions could transcend the barriers of language, culture and geography – a great truth that Tagore so poetically described in his great short story. Kabuliwala.
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