What makes us smile

by Lara Ineschi (Italy)

I didn't expect to find Thailand

I’m with my friend Sara, on the train from Bangkok to Lopburi. The couch we’ve been assigned reminds me a lot of our European ones. The ticket inspector welcomes us on board, goes back and forth to assure the passengers have everything they need. The air conditioning is in full function. The place is so cold it gives me chills. I’m shaking. It’s the view from the window that keeps my mind out of all of this… I would call it unnecessary luxury, in this case. There are kilometers of nature we’re passing through. The vegetation is dense and composed by a great variety of tropical plants of an intense green, which perfectly merry with the red of the earth. Multiple feelings are swirling inside me. It’s like each spot has its own light, vibration, story. After barely two hours of this esoteric, almost hypnotic beauty speeding in front of me, we reach our destination. At the Lopburi train station you can find funny statues of monkeys welcoming you, guiding the travelers along the platform. If you ended up here is probably because you want to visit Prang Sam Yod, an ancient Buddhist temple where people can interact with monkeys, which have chosen this sanctuary as they’re home. But we don’t pause here for too long. When you visit touristic places like this, it’s not unusual to be a spectator of what’s now become a sad habit, the well known process of “feed the animal - fake a smile - take a picture”. This punch of superficiality pushes me away. If you take a walk in the surroundings, you can find a lot of monkeys roaming around freely on the streets. They sit on the sidewalks where locals often leave them some food, jump between the tangles of electric cables and try to get into the shops to steal some shiny objects. Everything feels much more spontaneous and authentic. We are now walking randomly through the alleys, when something captures my total attention. It’s a street food market. This one is very isolated, far from the trafficked roads. Very quiet, not so many customers are wondering by the stalls. The temperature is high and the heat enhances the smells arising from the food, the asphalt, the people, the dirt. You can almost touch the poverty and degradation that are filling the air, making it thicker each step. On a mucky table pieces of “fresh” meat are exposed under the shadow of a sheet. Upon them empty plastic bottles are integrated with an electrical device which makes a strip of cloth rotate to chase the flies away. The sellers are sitting there, taking care as they can of they’re goods, waiting patiently for someone, or maybe something. But in spite of the heavy atmosphere, something unexpected has hit me harder: smiles. And it’s so strong the difference with what I just witnessed at the temple. This is pure, and genuine. It’s not pretended, nor asks for something in return. So I cannot but ask myself, why am I smiling? Am I aware of the difference between a real, open-hearted smile, and one that’s become merely an instinctive reaction born from a conditioned mind? Everything seems to be made up so perfectly that we can’t even realize this is only a rotten surface we’re living in. We are constantly forced by a pressure we are applying one upon each other, and this pressure is keeping us far from the core of things. Yes, far even from something so simple as smiling. For what I can see maybe not so simple anymore. Sara and I stop for a quick meal, and it’s already time to go back. This time no comforts, we asked for a third class ticket. The couch is so crowded we’ve been lucky to find a seat. I stare at all these people standing around me and they’re calmness infects my turmoils. I leave all my fighting thoughts behind and just relax. My attention is now back to the breath-taking landscape just a few steps away, and an innocent smile finds its way on my peaceful face.