Date: 18/06/2026
All Rights Reserved by the Author
“Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.” — William Butler Yeats
Passing an old school one afternoon, a retired engineer heard the ringing of a bell.
The sound lasted only a few seconds.
Yet it carried him back decades.
He remembered rushing through corridors, sharing jokes with friends, worrying about examinations and dreaming about the future.
At the time, school days often seemed endless.
Years later, they appeared surprisingly brief.
The bell itself had not changed.
It still marked the beginning and end of lessons.
But for those who once walked those halls, it marked something more.
It marked friendships formed, mistakes made, lessons learned and ambitions born.
Life moves forward relentlessly.
Yet certain sounds possess a remarkable ability to reopen forgotten chapters.
A train whistle.
A temple bell.
A school bell.
They remind us that while time passes, the experiences that shaped us never truly disappear.
Sometimes they are waiting quietly for a familiar sound to bring them home again.
Rajat Chandra Sarmah
Guwahati, Assam, India
email: rajatchandrasarmah@gmail.com
youtube: conversewithasmile
musingofrajat.wordpress.com 