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4 November 2026
There is a quiet generosity in people who make room for others. It appears in small gestures: shifting a chair so someone can sit, allowing a stranger to finish a sentence, or noticing that a colleague has been unusually silent.
Such acts rarely become stories. They do not attract applause, and often the person offering them forgets them within minutes. Yet they can change the character of an ordinary day. A crowded room feels less crowded; a difficult conversation becomes possible; someone who expected to be overlooked discovers that they have been seen.
We often measure kindness by what is given. Perhaps it should also be measured by the space we create—for another person’s words, uncertainty, dignity and difference.
Making room does not require agreement with everyone. It asks only that we resist the impulse to occupy every moment with our own certainty.
In a world eager to be heard, the person who makes room may be offering something quietly rare: the real assurance that another human being belongs.
Rajat Chandra Sarmah, Guwahati, Assam, India, Instagram @rajatchandrasarmah, YouTube: conversewithasmile, email rajatchandrasarmah@gmail.com
