Date: 11/06/2026
All Rights Reserved by the Author
“A room without books is like a body without a soul.” — Marcus Tullius Cicero
While sorting through old papers, a retired teacher found a library card from her school days.
The edges were worn. The ink had faded.
Yet the small card opened a door to another time.
She remembered walking to the library every Saturday morning. She remembered the excitement of borrowing a new book and the disappointment of returning one too soon.
Back then, the library was more than a building.
It was a passport.
Through books, she travelled across oceans, climbed mountains, met inventors, explorers and dreamers.
The library card itself had no value.
No collector would pay for it.
Yet it represented something priceless—the moment a young mind discovered that the world was far larger than the streets around her home.
Many of life’s greatest journeys begin quietly.
Not with a ticket or a suitcase.
But with curiosity.
And sometimes, years later, a faded library card reminds us where that journey first began.
Rajat Chandra Sarmah
Guwahati, Assam, India
email: rajatchandrasarmah@gmail.com
youtube: conversewithasmile
musingofrajat.wordpress.com 