By ASHOK SHARMA
Associated Press, May 16, 2014

NEW DELHI (AP) — Indian opposition leader Narendra Modi and his party
won national elections in a landslide Friday, preliminary results
showed, driving the long-dominant Congress party out of power in the
most commanding victory India has seen in more than a quarter century.

The
Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party captured a commanding lead for
at least 272 seats in the lower house of Parliament, the majority
needed to create a government without forming a coalition with smaller
parties. The Congress party trailed well behind with leads in only 42
seats, its worst showing ever.

Full results are expected later in
the day but it’s unlikely that Modi’s party would see a significant
reversal, putting him on track to be the next prime minister.

With a note of triumph, Modi tweeted: “India has won!” as the results came out.

Television
channels showed an emotional Modi meeting his mother and touching her
feet, a traditional gesture when Hindus seek the blessings of an older
relative.

Caption: Hindu nationalist Narendra Modi (L), the prime ministerial candidate for
India’s main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), seeks blessings
from his mother Heeraben at her residence in Gandhinagar in the western
Indian state of Gujarat May 16, 2014. Modi will be the next prime
minister of India, with counting trends showing the pro-business Hindu
nationalist and his party headed for the most resounding election
victory the country has seen in thirty years. (REUTERS/Amit Dave)
           

His mother then marked his forehead with vermilion and fed him sweets.

The
BJP’s slick and well-financed campaign promised a revival of economic
growth, and took advantage of widespread dissatisfaction with the
Congress party, plagued by scandals and led by a young scion of India’s
Nehru-Gandhi family who was seen as privileged and out of touch with the
people.

The Congress party, which has been at the center of
Indian politics for most of the country’s history since independence
from Britain, conceded defeat.

“I admit that in 2014 the result
is worse than our worse-case scenario. The result is a shock. But the
Congress party has a deep reservoir of strength,” party leader Jairam
Ramesh said.

Outgoing Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called Modi to congratulate him, his office said, adding that Singh would send his resignation to President Pranab Mukerjee on Saturday.

At BJP headquarters in New Delhi, workers handed out sweets, set off firecrackers and danced outside in the streets. BJP President Rajnath Singh congratulated party workers for what he described as a “historic victory.”

“In the history of independent India, no political party has defeated the Congress party with such a wide margin,” Singh told a news conference that opened with the blowing of a conch shell, a traditional start for most Hindu rituals.

There was a record turnout in the election,
with 66.38 percent of India’s 814 million eligible voters casting
ballots during the six-week contest, which began April 7 and was held in
stages across the country. Turnout in the 2009 general election was
58.13 percent.

Final results were to be announced later Friday.
If the BJP stays ahead of the 272-mark it would be the first time a
single party has won a majority since the 1984 national election.

Caption: Supporters of Hindu nationalist Narendra Modi, the prime ministerial candidate for India’s main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), shower confetti from atop a bus in the western Indian city of Ahmedabad May 15, 2014. (REUTERS/Amit Dave)

Exit
polls by at least six major Indian TV stations had predicted a BJP-led
coalition would win between 249 and 289 seats in the 543-seat Lok Sabha,
or lower house of Parliament.

The Nehru-Gandhi family, which has
ruled India for all but 10 years since the country won independence
from British rule in 1947, was suffering its worst-ever political
drubbing.

The
Congress party attempted to position its 43-year-old leader, Rahul
Gandhi, as youthful and capable of boosting the country’s struggling
economy. But many Indians see him as being out of touch with reality.
His privileged background has made him appear aloof and removed from the
concerns of most people.

In comparison, Modi’s campaign was seen
by many as a media and marketing coup for a man whose background ties
him to bloodshed in his home state of Gujarat, where communal rioting in
2002 left more than 1,000 people dead, most of them Muslims. Modi is
accused of doing little to stop the rampage, though he denies any
wrongdoing and has never been charged with a crime.

He managed to
hammer away at Gandhi — specifically the perception that he is nothing
more than a feudal prince from a family that views ruling the country as
its birthright.

In sharp contrast to the street parties outside
the BJP office, a sober scene played out in front of Congress
headquarters, where few showed up despite barricades erected to protect
supporters from passing road traffic.

One small group of women
sat on the sidewalk, lighting a ritual prayer fire to invoke divine help
for the party while a handwritten sign standing by read, “May Rahul
Gandhi be the next prime minister.”

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Consider a tree for a moment. As beautiful as trees are to look at, we don’t see what goes on underground – as they grow roots. Trees must develop deep roots in order to grow strong and produce their beauty. But we don’t see the roots. We just see and enjoy the beauty. In much the same way, what goes on inside of us is like the roots of a tree. ~Joyce Meyer

No matter how dark the moment,
love and hope are always possible.

~George Chakiris

If you truly get in touch with a piece of carrot, you get in touch with the soil, the rain, the sunshine. You get in touch with Mother Earth and eating in such a way, you feel in touch with true life, your roots, and that is meditation. If we chew every morsel of our food in that way we become grateful and when you are grateful, you are happy.

~Thich Nhat Hanh

A pearl is a beautiful thing that is produced by an injured life. It is the tear [that results] from the injury of the oyster. The treasure of our being in this world is also produced by an injured life. If we had not been wounded, if we had not been injured, then we will not produce the pearl. ~ Stephan Hoeller

Frown and you frown alone, but smile and the whole world smiles with you.

With 19 variations on the smile, including 16 produced by enjoyable emotions, smiling is an incredibly important part of our lives. Here’s how to develop your grin.

1. Become comfortable with smiling. If you’re not used to smiling regularly, overcoming your nervousness or cynicism about smiling can take a little practice but like any habit, it’s easy to reform with time. Some things to keep in mind include:

• A smile always looks good. Feeling nervous about the beauty or appearance of your smile is unnecessary. Trust that your smile makes you look great.
• A smile is professional. Smiling at work or during other professional occasions is not going to make you seem unprofessional. Quite the opposite, a smile will humanize you and make you appear more approachable. People will appreciate your recognition of their worth and of a job well done when you smile.
• A smile makes you real. If you’re afraid of appearing vulnerable when you smile, accept that any form of vulnerability suggested by a smile is precisely what makes it such a powerful act. You’re opening yourself up to others and people will respond better to that than to a serious, unmoved demeanor. 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!

2. Make your smile genuine. While it is perfectly possible to crack a smile when you feel terrible, angry, annoyed, or you’re up to something nefarious, a genuine smile is much harder to fake; indeed, only around 10 percent of the population can manage that feat.

• A genuine smile is detectable by others because it is accompanied by a general glow, smiling eyes where the outer corners crinkle and the lower lid tightens, and a reassuring demeanor that helps the viewer to feel more at ease in your presence. A genuine smile comes from being happy, positive, and from drawing your feelings from the heart.
• Think happy thoughts. The easiest way to a fantastic, genuine smile is to be happy. Think about someone you care about (perhaps the person standing in front of you as you smile), about something that you genuinely love to do, or think of a funny joke that you just find hilarious. Or think about the happiest moments in your life.
• Be genuine. Draw on your heartfelt feelings, not just rationalizations. When you’re confronted by a person or situation that makes you feel ambivalent and you’re oscillating between giving the cold shoulder or smiling, err on the side of smiling – find one single thing in your heart that is positive about the person or situation before you, and use that to create your smile.
• Love people and your life. It’s much easier to produce friendly, easygoing, genuine smiles when you love what you do, when you love the people around you, and when you love humanity in general. Be grateful for all that you have and you’ll find smiles come far more naturally.
• Be playful. Intense times can make us too serious. See life as an adventure, be gentle on yourself and watch children at play. Being playful will bring a smile to your face much more easily.

3. Smile with your eyes. A wholehearted smile will naturally draw in the eyes (called a Duchenne smile). It is commonplace to hear a person say “her eyes were smiling”, or to say “he didn’t mean it; he was smiling but his eyes weren’t”. The eyes are essential for a genuine, warm smile. Your eyes light up, twinkle, and reflect your happiness. While it’s hard to fake this unless you’re really feeling it, you can try this exercise:

• To get a feel for how to make your eyes smile, stand in front of a mirror and practice smiling, but concentrate only on your eyes. You may find it helpful to cover the lower part of your face with a piece of paper. Play around with it a bit, and you’ll find that you can make your mouth smile when your eyes aren’t smiling, and you can also smile only with your eyes. When your eyes do smile, remember how it feels, which muscles are working and how. With practice, you may discover how to smile with your eyes at will by relying on your feelings and muscle memory.

4. Practice your smile. There is no harm in practicing your smile – doing so will increase your smiling confidence, improve your sense of well-being, and help you to learn which of your smiles are your best.

• Look at photos of yourself smiling, with a closed mouth, open mouth, and from different angles. Which smiles and poses make your face light up the most? Which smile displays your other features to their best possible advantage? Which smile comes across as the most natural, the most “you”?
• Find that picture and focus on what your face is doing. Then practice in front of a mirror until you get it just right. Keep practicing, and pay attention to how that great smile feels, so that you’ll be able to replicate it without looking in a mirror. Soon it will become second nature, and you’ll likely find that you’ll look more photogenic in your next batch of pictures.
• If you want to improve your smile, look at pictures of smiles you believe are beautiful. Also, remember that you’re beautiful (inside and out); your smile is bound to look better if you feel good about yourself!
• Note the difference between a smile and a grin. Grins bare a lot more teeth (think Cheshire Cat) and are not necessarily flattering on all people, although for some people they can make you appear cute. If you’re prone to grinning and it’s not doing your appearance any favors, try showing only your upper teeth when you smile. Showing your lower teeth can make it seem you’re baring your teeth.
• When showing teeth, pressing the tongue behind the teeth will make small gaps look less noticeable.
• Practice smiling at random strangers. Make a choice that you’ll do this, make brief eye contact with a person, and smile. As you do so, think happy thoughts (it helps to choose someone attractive to begin with). Don’t choose a person with sunglasses; you need to see their eyes. Not everyone will smile back but note how you feel when they do!

5. Maintain good oral hygiene. One thing that can cause you to fear smiling is the worry that there is something stuck between your teeth, or that you have bad breath. Eliminate these hygiene sources of worry by taking active steps to keep 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 on you at all times (natural or commercial).
• See your dentist regularly for teeth check-ups and cleaning, as well as discussing options for teeth straightening, etc., if this is a concern for you. When you smile people will inevitably look at your mouth, so following these considerations will help you make a better impression, and, more importantly, a healthy mouth will make you feel more confident about smiling.
• If your teeth are stained, consider your lifestyle habits that bring this about and try to minimize the impacts of such habits as smoking or drinking too much red wine, coffee, soft drinks, etc.
• Keep your lips in great shape to prevent chapping.
• Deal with bad breath. If it’s surface, cleaning and fresheners should be adequate. If these do not work, it may be a sign of an underlying health problem, so see your doctor for advice.

6. Expect smiling to be difficult in some situations. Smiling on demand can be difficult, whether it’s for a photo or for the sake of keeping mom happy when the relatives you can’t stand visit. This is because you are feeling self-conscious or you lack a genuine reason for smiling. In these sorts of cases, smiling needs to come from your memory of good smiles along with a little self-kidding or jokes in the head.

• For a photo, smile 20 percent more than you think you should.
• Smile wide and show the top row of teeth.

7. Enjoy the many benefits of a smile. In order to want to smile, it really helps to know what 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:

• Smiles improve your appearance. Charles Gordy once quipped: “A smile is an inexpensive way to change your looks”. All you need to do is think about how you feel about a person who is frowning and a person who is smiling – who tends to be the better looking?
• Smiles make things right again and say much more than words can. If you’ve goofed, said something less than complimentary, feel lost or alone, or feel down, a smile can restore the balance. It lets other people know that you’re prepared to be open with them, and that you’re willingly agreeing to make amends where needed.
• Smiles create trust and rapport. A smile is a great way of establishing mutual feelings of being on the same level as others, whether that is one-to-one or in front of a group giving a presentation. It says “I’m OK, you’re OK, and we’re all going to enjoy one another’s company.”
• Smiles make you feel good. Even if you’re feeling a little blue, insert happy thoughts into your mind and just add that smile. It will trick your mind into feeling better, as endorphins are released to reduce physical or emotional stress.
• Smiles make other people feel good. An open-mouthed smile is visible from further away than a frown, offering people reassurance that you’re friendly. And it makes people feel better to see a smile, from afar or close-up.
• Wrinkles are better when they’re smile lines rather than frown lines. Mark Twain said: “Wrinkles should merely indicate where smiles have been”; viewed this way, smiles are an indication of your overall character, which becomes more and more outwardly telling as you age!
• Smiling is a good long-term predictor of happier life outcomes. It’s correlated with health, happiness, friends, success, and a longer life.

Source: wikihow.com

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