Date: 25/08/2026
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“Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.”
— Martin Luther King Jr.
There are times when we want to see the entire road before taking the first step.
We want to know where it will lead, whether it will work, and what will happen along the way.
But life rarely gives us that kind of certainty.
Sometimes we simply have to begin.
A new job.
A new relationship.
A journey.
A book.
A decision we have been postponing for too long.
The first step may feel small, almost insignificant.
But without it, nothing changes.
Perhaps courage is not about knowing exactly what lies ahead.
Perhaps it is about trusting ourselves enough to take that first step—and then taking the next one when the time comes.
We do not always need to see the whole staircase.
Sometimes seeing the next step is enough.

Rajat Chandra Sarmah
Guwahati, Assam, India
Email: rajatchandrasarmah@gmail.com
YouTube: Converse With A Smile
@conversewithasmile

Date: 24/08/2026
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We remember birthdays, passwords, names,
We remember old roads and forgotten games.
We remember the song that we heard years ago,
And the face of a friend we don’t often know.
But where did I put my glasses today?
I searched for an hour in every way.
I blamed the table, the chair and the bed,
Then found them resting right on my head.
Age, perhaps, has a wonderful art—
It loses small things but remembers the heart.
So if I forget where I left something tonight,
I’ll remember the one who makes everything right.

Rajat Chandra Sarmah
Guwahati, Assam, India
Email: rajatchandrasarmah@gmail.com
YouTube: Converse With A Smile
@conversewithasmile

Date: 23/08/2026
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When we think of great architecture, we often imagine buildings that dominate their surroundings.
The Finnish architect Alvar Aalto had a different instinct.
His buildings often seem to belong to the landscape rather than conquer it.
In 2026, UNESCO added Aalto Works to the World Heritage List. The property brings together thirteen buildings and ensembles across Finland, created between 1928 and 1988. They include civic, cultural, educational and residential works associated with Aalto, his studio and his collaborators.
What I find particularly appealing about Aalto’s work is its human scale.
Light matters.
Wood matters.
The surrounding landscape matters.
Even the way a person moves through a building matters.
His architecture was modern, but it did not feel determined to erase everything that came before it. It drew from Finnish building traditions while embracing modern ideas. UNESCO describes the works as expressing a distinctly human-centred approach to architecture.
Perhaps that is why these buildings still feel alive.
Good architecture does more than give us shelter.
Sometimes it changes the way we experience an ordinary day.

Rajat Chandra Sarmah
Guwahati, Assam, India
Email: rajatchandrasarmah@gmail.com
YouTube: Converse With A Smile
@conversewithasmile

#HeritageStories #Finland #AlvarAalto #Architecture #WorldHeritage #ConverseWithASmile

Date: 23/08/2026
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“All that is gold does not glitter.”
— J. R. R. Tolkien,

The Fellowship of the Ring
We are often attracted to what shines immediately.
Success that everyone can see.
People whose names are known everywhere.
Achievements that arrive with applause.
But life has another kind of beauty.
A person who quietly keeps a promise.
Someone who works for years without telling anyone.
A parent who gives without keeping an account.
A friend who remembers something you mentioned long ago and asks about it years later.
These things rarely glitter.
Yet they may be the most valuable things we ever receive.
Perhaps growing older teaches us to look a little differently.
We begin to understand that importance does not always announce itself.
Some of the finest things in life arrive quietly.
And sometimes, we recognise their worth only after they have become part of us.

Rajat Chandra Sarmah
Guwahati, Assam, India
Email: rajatchandrasarmah@gmail.com
YouTube: Converse With A Smile
@conversewithasmile

Every afternoon, the dog came to the same gate.
Nobody knew exactly when the habit had begun.
He would settle beside the old iron bars, place his chin on his front paws and watch the road.
People passed him. Some stopped to pat his head. Others called his name, though nobody was quite sure what it was.
He never followed them.
He simply waited.
There was something patient in his waiting, but not sad. He seemed to believe that someone was going to appear, and that believing was enough.
Rain came. Summer passed. The road was repaired. A new shop opened across the street.
Still, the dog returned to the gate.
One evening, an old man walking home stopped beside him.
“You’re still waiting?” he asked softly.
The dog looked up.
For a moment, neither moved.
Then the old man sat down beside him.
They remained there as the light slowly faded.
Perhaps the dog had been waiting for someone.
Perhaps the old man had been too.
Neither seemed to mind the silence.
Sometimes companionship does not begin with a conversation.
Sometimes it begins with two creatures quietly waiting beside the same gate.

All rights reserved by the author.

Rajat Chandra Sarmah
Writer | Author | Poet
Assam, India

Lisbon has a way of carrying its past without putting it behind glass.
Among its narrow streets and steep hills, the yellow trams still move through the city, following tracks that have witnessed generations come and go.
The story began long before the familiar electric trams became part of Lisbon’s identity. CARRIS was founded in 1872, when the city first introduced horse-drawn carriages running on rails. Electric tram service arrived on 31 August 1901.
More than a century later, some historic trams are still preserved.
One of them, Tram 444, dates from 1901. It has rattan seats and an ornamented wooden ceiling—details that belong to another age, yet have not entirely disappeared from the streets of Lisbon.
I find something beautiful in that.
We usually think of progress as replacing the old with the new. But perhaps a city can progress without erasing everything that came before it.
A tram can carry today’s passengers while carrying yesterday’s memory.
It passes a doorway where someone once waited for a loved one. It climbs a hill that has watched children grow old. It rings its bell, turns a corner, and continues.
The passengers change.
The city changes.
But for a few minutes, the tram remembers everyoneone.

All rights reserved by the author.

Rajat Chandra Sarmah
Writer | Author | Poet
Assam, India

Date: 22/08/2026
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“It is better to light a candle than curse the darkness.”
— Eleanor Roosevelt
There are days when the problems around us seem too large to change.
We look at them and think: What can one person possibly do?
Perhaps more than we imagine.
One person can make a phone call.
One can teach a child.
One can listen.
One can refuse to pass on an unkind word.
One can simply choose to do the right thing when nobody is watching.
None of these acts will solve every problem.
But darkness is not defeated by complaining about how dark it is.
It is defeated by creating a little light.
And perhaps that is how change has always begun—not with everyone doing everything, but with someone deciding to do one small thing well.

Rajat Chandra Sarmah
Guwahati, Assam, India
Email: rajatchandrasarmah@gmail.com
YouTube: Converse With A Smile
@conversewithasmile

Date: 22/08/2026
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An elderly gentleman once spent nearly half an hour searching for his spectacles.
He looked on the table.
Under the newspaper.
Beside the television.
Even in the kitchen.
Finally, his wife walked in and asked, “What are you looking for?”
“My glasses.”
She looked at him for a few seconds.
Then she said, very gently:
“They’re on your face.”
He touched his spectacles.
There was silence.
Then he began laughing.
His wife laughed too.
“Don’t tell anyone,” he said.
“I won’t,” she replied.
“And why are you smiling?”
“Because,” she said, “you’ve been looking for them with your glasses on.”
Some moments in life are worth remembering simply because they make us laugh at ourselves.
We all have them.
And perhaps that’s one of the nicest things about growing older:
you collect enough embarrassing moments to become very good at laughing about them.

Rajat Chandra Sarmah
Guwahati, Assam, India
Email: rajatchandrasarmah@gmail.com
YouTube: Converse With A Smile
@conversewithasmile

Date: 22/08/2026
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There are mountains that are beautiful.
And then there are mountains that have become part of a civilisation’s imagination.
Mount Olympus belongs to the second kind.
In Greek mythology, Olympus was regarded as the home of the gods. But beyond mythology, the mountain and its surrounding landscape are extraordinary in their own right.
In 2026, the Wider Area of Mount Olympus was added to UNESCO’s World Heritage List as a natural property, recognising the area’s exceptional biodiversity and ecological importance.
The landscape rises dramatically from the surrounding region, creating a remarkable range of habitats. Its forests, cliffs, alpine zones and valleys support a rich variety of plant and animal life.
What fascinates me is the meeting of two worlds here.
The ancient Greeks looked at these mountains and imagined gods.
Modern science looks at them and sees geology, ecology and biodiversity.
Both responses begin with the same thing:
wonder.
Perhaps that is why certain landscapes survive in human memory for thousands of years.
We may change the stories we tell about them.
But the mountains remain—and continue to make us look upward.

Rajat Chandra Sarmah
Guwahati, Assam, India
Email: rajatchandrasarmah@gmail.com
YouTube: Converse With A Smile
@conversewithasmile

#HeritageStories #Greece #MountOlympus #Nature #WorldHeritage #ConverseWithASmile

Date: 22/08/2026
All Rights Reserved by the Author

“It is better to light a candle than curse the darkness.”
— Eleanor Roosevelt
There are days when the problems around us seem too large to change.
We look at them and think: What can one person possibly do?
Perhaps more than we imagine.
One person can make a phone call.
One can teach a child.
One can listen.
One can refuse to pass on an unkind word.
One can simply choose to do the right thing when nobody is watching.
None of these acts will solve every problem.
But darkness is not defeated by complaining about how dark it is.
It is defeated by creating a little light.
And perhaps that is how change has always begun—not with everyone doing everything, but with someone deciding to do one small thing well.

Rajat Chandra Sarmah
Guwahati, Assam, India
Email: rajatchandrasarmah@gmail.com
YouTube: Converse With A Smile
@conversewithasmile