Date: 07/09/2026
All rights reserved by the author
It is strange what the mind chooses to keep.
We may forget an important date and remember, perfectly, the smell of an old classroom.
We may struggle to recall a conversation from last week but suddenly remember the sound of someone laughing twenty years ago.
Sometimes a song does it.
Sometimes a particular road.
Sometimes the smell of rain.
And without warning, we are somewhere else for a few seconds.
I don’t think memories always arrive because we deliberately invite them.
Perhaps they simply know the way.
A childhood friend.
A person who is no longer with us.
A house that has changed.
A voice we have not heard for years.
For a brief moment, they return—not exactly as they were, but as we have carried them inside us.
Perhaps that is one of life’s quiet miracles.
Nothing is completely gone while a small part of it can still make us stop, smile and say,
“Yes… I remember.”
Rajat Chandra Sarmah
Guwahati, Assam, India
Email: rajatchandrasarmah@gmail.com
YouTube: Converse With A Smile
