Why has Mona Lisa’s painting remained so famous? It is five centuries old, but it is a favorite painting of all times. I think the probable answer is her inimitable smile. A simple smile can break barriers; it can prevent apprehensions, misunderstanding, ease tensions, create acquaintance, improve mental, physical, emotional & spiritual well-being, improve social conditions, give a feeling of sincerity and care all of this leading to goodness. It is so easy to smile, but we make the process difficult.

Psychiatrists suggest nervous and tense patients to smile more often. However fast fashions and styles may change, a genuine smile will never go out of style. Do you agree? And, each person has a different smile, because each one has a different motive and cause to smile. A smile can brighten people’s day in a second, it makes the receiver appreciate and acknowledge you instantaneously. It is not less than an act of worship. Keeps you face illuminated with a constant smile & see how your life changes! Yes, It changes your destiny.

One simple smile has the power to calm fear, insecurity, hurt, and anxiety. It has the power within it to change the world because smiles can be shared. They are contagious. When you smile at another person you pass all the wonderful benefits of smiling on to that person. In the worst of situations in life, some people have that beautiful smile with which they can ease tension of the situation. One of aunts had this cute smile, she had to struggle hell of a lot, but she always won all those scuffles and skirmishes in her life with her sporadic smile. I think she got life’s courage because of smiling. She would visit the neighboring houses in their times of grief, she could console people with her magic touch and her curing smile. I believe that it’s during tough times a resolute smile is needed the most. In a grim atmosphere you need a person who can lighten the moment with an assuring smile.

There have been many interesting studies conducted over the past few years which speak of the magic and power of a smile. The human brain has two circuits for controlling smiles. The cerebral cortex controls the conscious smile while the deep, primitive brain structure handles the expression of emotions. Do you know the drop-jaw smile is an exaggeration due to the jaw being lowered? This type of smile is commonly seen among public figures when giving speeches or at press conferences. Those public figures include politician and celebrities, who understand the importance of laughter. This is an enforced smile to keep the crowd in control.

The extension of this smile technique to win over people quickly is the turn-away smile – as the individual also comes across as youthful, playful and creative. It is actually a hybrid expression where the smile signals welcome, whereas the motion of turning away gives the signal of evasion. To illustrate, most men cannot resist if a women smiles coyly in their directions. Also, when a female gives the turn-away smile, it invokes parental male feelings, making men want to protect and care for the female. Some actresses are quite adept at using this technique to captivate the hearts of fans.

What do understand when a person gives you a close-lipped smile? In which the teeth aren’t displayed. This smile portrays that the person is hiding something from you. So when a mischievous child gives this smile it for sure that he is hiding something from you. If your friend gives you the closed-lip smile, the clear message is that although your friend is happy chatting with you, he is not telling you the whole thing. He/she is not revealing the truth as it is.

When the tips of the lips are stretched without the teeth exposed, such a smile shows the harboring of a secret. It shows resentment in attitude. It also projects the person’s unwillingness to talk any further. When a person does not want to share personal information with you he/she is ought to give you a tight-lipped smile. The tight-lipped smile also evokes mystery and can be often seen in magazine pictures of successful politicians and businessmen. The picture clearly reveals they aren’t disclosing any of their key secrets; they are sharing in the interview only the broad principles for success.

A twisted smile or a lopsided smile –  it appears when one side of the lip moves upwards and the other side slants down causing the mouth to move in opposite directions and ending up in what seems to be a twist. This smile is interpreted as expressing mixed emotions. It projects sadness, worry or uneasiness, contrasted by the upward tilt which says that person is ready to discuss, he is in an amicable mood to talk and is not angry. To sum up, the lopsided smile signals various messages that can range from sarcasm or humiliation to biting wit.

A forced smile looks artificial and unnatural. This can be noticed specially when eyes are not engaged with mouth; resulting in the eyes looking dull or lacking energy. The phony smile gives the impression that we do not mean what we are saying – and it evokes a response of dislike of interest in social bonding.

But a genuine smile encourages others to smile back and convey an honest emotion because when we are smiling, we feel happier and this happiness is communicated to others. You will see the infants have a genuine smile.

And a scorn is an act of contempt; it shows someone being rude and reflects the lack of caring and empathy on the part of the person doing the sneering. During police interviews, for example, you will see a sneer on the faces of criminals.

So friends, different smiles have different interpretations. Smiles express a lot of unsaid emotions of people. But I am advocating importance of genuine smile at this point. A single smile, and how something so seemingly simple and effortless can inspire, affect, and set the attitude of a person’s day. A smile breaks down barriers, it diffuses tense or litigious situations, it fosters positive intent, and it inspires a child’s, parent’s, a patient’s, a student’s or colleague’s perception. A smile says the lot of who you are. It is one of the most powerful gifts that you can give to another person. That one simple gesture has the ability to lift another into a feeling of intense enjoyment, erase loneliness, and remove physical and emotional pain. It is an expression of courage and good will.

You have the power within you to create a smile. It is very powerful and doesn’t cost anything.  Whenever you smile at someone else they are very likely to start smiling too because a smile is infectious. Try it. Tilt up the corner of your lips at someone on the street, in a lift, in a bazaar, a mall, in hospital at the patients on the bed, in a professional meet, in a lecture hall anywhere…. and the chances are that you will make that person grin back at you.  It will raise a wave of happiness, energize the being. Maybe for a little while all their physical and emotional aches and pains will miraculously go away.

In our society we are tremendously obsessed with academic qualifications; as a result, we check qualifications of the bride and groom before finalizing matrimony, before giving membership in a club, an association, a forum, in a sports club, while applying for a job, qualifications are checked. A person’s aptitude, ability and skill are judged by his/her academic qualifications. Any bio-data résumé or curriculum vitae are deplorable without the inclusion of education qualifications. Therefore it is an impromptu rule of both the corporate world and the social world that a man’s academic qualification is a key to his entry to a coveted position in society.

Education does help add finesse to life; it helps developing moral, civic values. It prepares us with good manners, proper behavior, hygienic living. Aacademic education gives people an encompassing experience of life, with lots of opportunities to meet people from different walks of life and to consider the importance in life of values and culture. These are necessary for a person’s growth. Educated citizens help in building a civilized nation. It uplifts our morals and ethics by exposing us to the great thinkers of the past. It makes us aware of our rights and liberties, and helps establish a liberal democracy with active citizens and an active media.

But when we spend twelve years of our life in schooling, and several more years of our precious life in college on graduation and often post graduation, and then one fine day it strikes us that our degrees are not required for success; why because Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Dhirubhai Ambani and many other rich people were schools dropouts and they built great fortunes!! Unfortunately the materialistic world has changed the concept of success.

We are also a fixated society about grades in qualifications. We have a wrong notion that grades alone can help getting success in life. If success and opportunities were measured by grades then the corporate world and potential marriage partners would not ask for bio-data, where other credentials are also mentioned. Nor would they interview the candidates in order to find out what they are like as people. Education helps us modify our people skills, our thinking, our character and our inventiveness. It prepares us for life life’s success. IT helps in honing our physical characteristics, personality, and a willingness to work hard. Grades are really irrelevant.

We have somewhere misinterpreted grades/marks in education. We attach so much importance to marks that it has become a rat-race where every student chases grades and therefore the entire perception of success and affluence has changed. Rather than studying to reach one’s full potential, children simply mug up for examinations. Further, they get frustrated when they don’t get jobs. More time is spent in job hunting than in education. Many people find themselves in the wrong profession and lacking job satisfaction. The business atmosphere is highly politicized, favoritism plays key role, and we see wrong people in big positions. In short, our idea of education has got mistaken, our idea of prosperity is mistaken, and our definition of success is changed. With so many years of education finally we misread that if anyone is able to save his/her job then he/she is successful!

If we look at some very successful people in the world, who are doctors, engineers, researchers and IT, professionals, many of them are employed by people like Bill Gates, Richard Branson, Ambani who have built empires devoid of formal educational qualifications.

Does education corrupt minds? I think yes, because by going to schools and college students do rote learning and taking multiple examinations. It forces people to learn and think like millions of other graduates. This spoils chances of some brilliant minds which can come up with the truly mould-breaking insights and “disruptive” ideas on which successful innovations and new business models are built. Our education is not outcome based; today’s students cannot implement and apply what they have learned, they are not capable of putting their knowledge into practice in an increasingly complex and challenging environment. The emphasis, therefore, should be on practical, sensible, workable learning — rather than simply accumulating information which becomes outmoded in shorter span.

And what about those fake degrees sold by thriving illegal rackets in the market? So many dubious agents are selling degrees and people are buying them. Nexus between state universities, education intermediaries and private/public educational institutions are flouting norms, often jeopardizing the careers of students by conferring on them a degree, which may not be legitimate. And, if such students get trapped, he/she loses job, reputation and chances of making a decent living thereafter.

Another question is raised against academic qualification – that is whether it can stop us from becoming a civilization of drunkards, rapists, war-mongers, immoral money launders, criminals, and villains. If you look at countries where the largest numbers of people have higher academic qualifications, they are the ones most affected by social breakdown. Can we call America a successful nation for its wars on Iraq and Afghanistan? Can we call it superior by any chance? Can we call Russia a mighty nation for creating the Crimean crisis? Can we call some fluent Indian and Pakistani politicians wise for not solving the Kashmir issue? Are the “educated” politicians of India and Pakistan solving problems of the innocent Kasmiris?  India and Pakistan have fought at least three wars over Kashmir, but still the problem is not resolved.  Does education teach us to delay and drag important decisions?

Academic qualifications may not be enough on their own to ensure success, but they indicate that their possessor has got courage, daring, moral values to speak out against any kind of injustice. I think it’s high time we bring in changes in our education system. Today’s academic qualifications have no real relevance to the jobs graduates are employed to do. A few decades ago employers in areas such as banking, engineering, management and government service recruited people straight from school at the age of 15 or 16, trained them on the job and promoted them to higher levels of responsibility according to their ability. And, those people contributed to the growth of businesses and society.  Today none of these jobs has changed very much, but all of them require applicants with university degrees. Why has this changed? One reason is that the upper and middle classes are trying to protect their own jobs – demanding new recruits have expensive academic qualifications.

Our nation needs an education system that excites and stimulates children, providing them with the learning they need and be worthy of to accomplish their potential.  This means we need a curriculum of practical and vocational learning alongside theoretical study. This need for change has become more and more critical.  Let’s except a simple fact that the world has changed whereas our education system has not changed. The gap is very big. Indeed, it is largely based on a system developed over a century ago. Our assessment standards need change, our pedagogies need change, and we need to educate teachers first. Let’s not make our schools and colleges mere factories churning out graduates – where children are placed on a learning conveyor belt, then sorted, packaged and labeled with degrees.

And finally please understand this – academic qualifications are futile if they are not helping you to lead a happy and peaceful life.

 A name is the most important identifier of a person, a state, a village, a business, a nation, a pet etc. The name implies race, era, societal culture and religion. No wonder, people take time to name their children, their business, their pet, their ventures etc. Names have meaning and they do suggest character, traits and acumen of a person/business/pet/state/nation. Your name has power, therefore respect it.

We also see that some people hardly give any importance to their own name; I usually make it a point of asking people when I meet them, what their name means. I have seen blank expression on most people’s face because they are clueless about the meaning of their name. For most of them their name holds no power, no significance and no value. Your name has a meaning that defines you. While your surname explains on heredity, your given name is the stamp of your personal identity. There is a treasure in your name and that treasure is its meaning.

Do you know that words contain great power? In fact the Bible says that the universe, the world, everything we know was created by the word of God. So the power of names is indeed an amazing and exclusive thing.

The name given to the child is going to get repeated all through its life and may be even later. So the name should be one with profound meaning and should make sense in it rather than just serving as a tag. Hence, in the Hindu religion the naming ceremony has its significance. The child’s horoscope is prepared and depending on the star sign a name is chosen. A newly born child is given name of deity, the star in which the child is born, the name of the forefathers etc. According to the date and time of birth of the child, a particular letter of the Sanskrit alphabet associated with the child’s solar birth sign (Soorya Rashi) is chosen which would prove lucky for the baby and the family. The baby is then given a name starting with that letter.

Names have their roots, origins and versions in all religions. Germanic names characteristically convey aggressive attributes with such meanings as “strength”, “brightness,” “warrior”, “bravery” and “glory”. You will find the “bert” which is a core element common to many Germanic names; “bert” means “bright”. Examples are Albert and Robert. French names are usually variations of Germanic names. Some examples are: Robert, Charles, Henry, William and Albert. It is common in France to have two given names such as, Jeanne-Marie and Jean-Claude. Traditionally, the French are named after Roman calendar saints as with, Marie for Mary and Bernard for St. Bernard of Clairvaux. Celtic names, like Alan, Brian, and Brigid are anglicized versions of early Celtic forms. Christian saints dominate the list along with Celtic mythological figures such as Bran or Bron. The most common Celtic girl’s names are Lynn, Shannon and Eileen.

In Islam, baby is named on the day of birth, by his mother and father who make a decision together on what the child should be called. They choose an appropriate name and on the baby’s day of birth the father must have a sheep slaughtered and given to the poor to give charity on his babys birth. If he does not have enough funds he may do it anytime in the future as long as it is done in general.

Some people choose nature names which generally derive from the elements of nature such as, the names of flowers, birds, colors, stars, sun, moon, water, earth, air and fire. English names like Violet, Rose, Jasmine, Daisy, Dawn, Ruby, Pearl, Crystal and Sparrow are all examples of nature names, and Indian names such as Jai, Jui, Gulab, Varsha, Pawan, Rudra, Devika, Salil etc denote special qualities and attributes of nature. If you possess a nature name you please find the metaphysical attributes and properties that are associated with your name. Please research the particular element of nature to gain further insights into the power of your name.

Trait names often remark on virtues and principles. For example – Shalini, Sheela, Dayanand, Nirbhaya, Satyasheel are some Indian names which suggest personality traits. Trait names revolve around faith, hope, charity, intelligence, bravery, intelligence etc. It is believed that a girl or a boy possessing a trait name personifies that virtue throughout their life and grow to motivate others.

Very small (tiny) names are sometimes used to distinguish between two or more members within a family. In English, Robert may be changed to “Robby” or “Bobby” and “Danny” is frequently used for Daniel; while Bablu for Balwant, Raju for Rajendra, Pammi for Parwinder so on and forth in Indian names.

Your name is the link between your intelligence, your mind, your language, and your conduct. You can make a good, a bad or an ugly brand out of your name. You can make miracles if you wish so.  The more you understand about yourself, the more you’ll see and appreciate how unique you really are, and the more you’ll respect yourself. Discover your principles, personality, and talents. Stop pandering to other people’s approval and start developing your own standards.Learn to handle criticism. Forgive yourself of guilt or remorse. Accept yourself by being comfortable in your own skin and to learn to love and accept the person who you are.  Maintain a positive attitude and believe in your choices. Take good careof your body and mind both. Forgive others and shed the negativity. Avoid getting overly emotional it does not help. Most important spend time with the people who respect you. Work on bringing in positivity in your life; thus make your name powerful.