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26 October 2026

There are people who make a day easier without ever knowing it. Someone holds a door when your hands are full. A stranger gives you time to finish a sentence. A colleague notices that you are quieter than usual and asks, without pressing, whether you are all right.

None of these acts is dramatic. They may not even be remembered by the person who offered them. Yet they can change the texture of a difficult day.

We often measure kindness by its scale: money given, sacrifices made, problems solved. But kindness also lives in small decisions that ask for little and offer someone a little more room to breathe.

The world will always have large problems that require courage, planning and collective effort. Still, the way we treat the person in front of us is not insignificant. It is one part of the world over which we have some influence.

A small courtesy cannot repair everything. It can, however, remind another person that they have not become invisible.

And sometimes, that reminder is enough to help them carry on.

Rajat Chandra Sarmah, Guwahati, Assam, India, Instagram @rajatchandrasarmah, YouTube: conversewithasmile, email rajatchandrasarmah@gmail.com