Date: 05/09/2026
All Rights Reserved by the Author
Anyone who has lived with children—or even a particularly energetic pet—knows this rule:
Silence is not always peaceful.
Sometimes it is suspicious.
One afternoon, the house became unusually quiet.
No television.
No conversation.
No footsteps.
I looked around.
Nothing.
That was when I became worried.
“Why is it so quiet?” I asked.
Nobody answered.
That made it worse.
I walked from room to room, expecting to discover something terrible.
A broken vase.
A missing chair.
Perhaps an experimental haircut.
Instead, everyone was sitting peacefully in one room, completely absorbed in their phones.
I stood there for a moment.
“So this is what caused all my anxiety?”
Someone looked up.
“What happened?”
“Nothing,” I said. “That’s exactly the problem.”
They laughed.
And I learned something important that day.
Sometimes we complain about noise.
But when the house suddenly becomes silent, we immediately start wondering what everyone is planning.
Perhaps families need a little noise after all.
It reassures us that life is continuing normally.
Rajat Chandra Sarmah
Guwahati, Assam, India
Email: rajatchandrasarmah@gmail.com
YouTube: Converse With A Smile
@conversewithasmile
