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2 October 2026

There is a fish that can leave the water and walk across land.

It sounds like something from a children’s story.

But the mudskipper really does it.

These unusual fish live around tidal mudflats and mangrove areas in parts of Asia and Africa. Their bodies are adapted for spending considerable periods outside water, and their strong pectoral fins help them move across wet mud.

They can even climb surprisingly well.

When the tide goes out, a mudskipper may spend hours on the exposed mud instead of immediately returning to the water.

But there is a catch.

It still needs to keep its body moist.

So it has developed another clever trick: it can retain water in its gill chambers and absorb oxygen through its skin and the lining of its mouth when conditions are right.

Looking at one moving across the mud, it is difficult not to think that evolution was experimenting.

A fish looked at the land and, in its own peculiar way, decided:

“Perhaps I can manage this.”

It cannot live like a human.

It cannot walk like us.

But for a fish, it has made a surprisingly good arrangement with the world outside the water.

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

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2 October 2026

South Korea is a country most people first imagine through Seoul, technology, K-pop and fast-moving modern life.

But there is another South Korea that becomes visible when autumn arrives.

In the country’s mountain forests and old palace grounds, the green gradually gives way to red, yellow and gold. People travel out not necessarily to escape the cities, but simply to walk beneath the changing leaves.

One of the places where this seasonal change can be particularly beautiful is Naejangsan National Park, in the south-western part of the country.

The park is known for its autumn foliage, with maple and other trees turning brilliant colours as temperatures fall. Its mountains, valleys and temples give the landscape a character very different from the glass towers associated with modern South Korea.

There is something appealing about this contrast.

A country known around the world for some of the fastest-moving parts of modern life still makes room for people to stop and look at a tree.

Perhaps that is not surprising.

Every culture has its own way of reminding people that seasons change.

In South Korea, autumn offers a particularly beautiful reminder.

The colours do not stay for long.

Maybe that is exactly why people go looking for them.

They know they have only a short time to stand beneath the trees and simply watch the year change.

#SouthKorea #AutumnInKorea #Naejangsan #RajatChandraSarmah

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

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2 October 2026

Some people remain in our memory for reasons we cannot quite explain.

They may not have been our closest friends. They may have been teachers, neighbours, colleagues, or simply someone we met for a short period of our lives.

Yet years later, something reminds us of them.

Perhaps it is a particular expression they used.

A way they laughed.

The way they listened when everybody else was busy speaking.

I have sometimes wondered why memory chooses certain people and quietly lets others disappear.

Maybe it has little to do with how important they were to the world.

Perhaps it has more to do with how they made us feel when we were around them.

There are people who leave behind achievements.

There are others who leave behind a feeling.

The second kind can be harder to remember clearly, yet strangely harder to forget.

We may not remember exactly what they told us.

We remember that, for some reason, we felt a little better after speaking with them.

That may be one of the quietest ways a person can leave a mark on another life.

No monument.

No photograph.

Just a small place in somebody’s memory.

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

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1 October 2026

Imagine going to sleep without completely switching off.

One eye remains open.

Half your brain rests while the other half stays alert.

For some animals, this is not imagination. It is survival.

Dolphins can use a behaviour called unihemispheric sleep, in which one half of the brain rests while the other remains active. The eye associated with the awake side can remain open, allowing the animal to keep swimming and remain aware of its surroundings.

It also means a dolphin can continue surfacing to breathe while sleeping.

Think about that.

We usually think of sleep as surrendering ourselves completely to rest.

A dolphin cannot afford to do that in the same way.

The ocean is not a bedroom.

It is a moving, breathing world where the animal must continue to surface and remain aware.

So the dolphin has found a compromise.

Rest—but don’t completely switch off.

Perhaps nature has a strange way of solving problems that seem impossible.

And perhaps there is something rather beautiful about an animal that has learned to rest without ever entirely losing touch with the world around it.

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

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1 October 2026

Japan is often introduced through its great cities, bullet trains and ancient temples.

But perhaps one of the simplest ways to understand the country is to notice how closely people pay attention to the changing seasons.

When autumn arrives, the landscape begins to change quietly. The green of summer gives way to shades of red, orange and gold. Markets fill with seasonal food. Families and friends make time to enjoy the cooler air.

There is also an old Japanese tradition called tsukimi, or moon viewing.

It is associated with the autumn full moon and the harvest season. People gather to appreciate the moon, often offering rice dumplings and seasonal produce as a gesture of gratitude. (gov-online.go.jp)

What I find beautiful about the tradition is its simplicity.

There is no need for a grand celebration.

You simply look up.

The moon has always been there, of course. But perhaps we see it differently when somebody tells us that this particular moon is worth noticing.

Modern life moves quickly everywhere.

Japan, despite being one of the world’s most technologically advanced countries, has retained many such reminders to pause and notice the season.

Perhaps that is a lesson worth carrying beyond Japan.

Not everything beautiful needs to be possessed.

Some things are meant simply to be noticed.

#Japan #AutumnInJapan #Tsukimi #RajatChandraSarmah

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

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1 October 2026

A house can be beautiful and still feel empty.

A small room can be crowded with old furniture and yet feel strangely warm.

I think the difference is rarely in the walls.

It is in the people.

There are houses we remember not because of their size or appearance, but because somebody was always there. A mother calling from the kitchen. A father reading the newspaper. Children arguing over something completely unimportant. A neighbour dropping in without calling first.

Years later, we may forget the colour of the curtains.

We remember the voices.

Perhaps that is why returning to an old place can sometimes be disappointing. The walls are still there, the road may still be there, but the people who gave the place its meaning may have moved on.

William Shakespeare wrote, “There’s no place like home.”

Perhaps home is not really a place at all.

Perhaps it is the feeling of being recognised when we walk through a door.

The feeling that somebody noticed we had arrived.

And when we are fortunate enough to have known that feeling, we carry a little of it wherever we go.

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

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30 September 2026

Imagine walking through an African forest looking for honey.

You hear a small bird calling.

It flies ahead.

You follow.

It calls again.

You follow a little farther.

Eventually, the bird leads you to a bees’ nest.

This is the remarkable greater honeyguide, a bird found across parts of sub-Saharan Africa.

For some honey-hunting communities, this relationship has been passed down through generations. A honey hunter makes a particular call, and the bird may respond by leading the person towards a bee colony.

When the hive is opened, the hunter gets the honey.

And the bird gets something it wants too—the beeswax.

Researchers have found that honeyguides can learn and respond to the specific calls used by different human communities. In experiments in Mozambique, the birds were much more likely to cooperate after hearing the traditional honey-hunting call.

Think about that for a moment.

A person makes a call.

A wild bird understands.

The bird leads the person through the forest.

And both eventually get something they want.

We often think of communication as something that happens between people.

But perhaps the forest has been having conversations of its own for a very long time.

We just had to learn how to listen.

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

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30 September 2026

Benin is a small country in West Africa, on the Gulf of Guinea. It lies immediately east of Togo and west of Nigeria, with Burkina Faso and Niger to its north. Its southern edge meets the Atlantic Ocean.

It is from this relatively little-known corner of West Africa that one of the continent’s most remarkable water communities emerges.

On Lake Nokoué, close to the coastal city of Cotonou, lies Ganvié, a settlement built largely on stilts above the water.

The story of Ganvié goes back several centuries. According to historical accounts, communities settled on the lake to escape slave raids, finding safety in the shallow waters where those pursuing them were less able to follow. Over generations, what began as a refuge developed into a permanent way of life.

Today, the lake is not simply scenery for the people who live there.

It is their road.

People travel by wooden canoe. Fishing is part of everyday life. Markets operate on the water, and houses stand above it.

There are no ordinary streets running through the settlement.

The boats are the streets.

Ganvié has been on Benin’s UNESCO Tentative List since 1996, reflecting its cultural and architectural importance.

What fascinates me most is not the unusual appearance of the village.

It is the reason it exists.

A community once went onto the water looking for safety.

Generations later, the water has become home.

Sometimes history does not disappear.

It simply learns how to live in a different place.

#Benin #Ganvie #WestAfrica #RajatChandraSarmah

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

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30 September 2026

Time takes many things from us.

People move away. Houses are sold. Children grow up. Friends become names we see occasionally on a screen. Places that once felt permanent quietly change.

Yet some things remain.

A voice we can still hear in our memory.

A particular way someone laughed.

The smell of a kitchen from our childhood.

A lesson given to us by somebody who probably never realised how much it stayed with us.

As the years pass, these small things seem to become more valuable.

Not possessions. Not achievements.

The little things that entered our lives without making much noise.

William Shakespeare wrote in The Tempest, “We are such stuff as dreams are made on.”

I have often thought that memories are a part of that stuff too. They may not be something we can touch, but they quietly become part of who we are.

Perhaps that is why an old photograph can affect us more deeply than an expensive object. The photograph shows us a face, but what we really see is a whole period of our life standing behind it.

We cannot stop time.

We cannot keep everything.

But perhaps we do not lose everything either.

Some people, some moments and some kindnesses become part of us so quietly that even time cannot take them away.

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

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29 September 2026

Vampire bats have a reputation that is difficult to repair.

They drink blood.

They have sharp teeth.

They come out at night.

But there is another side to them that is surprisingly familiar.

They have friends.

Vampire bats live in social groups, and some individuals develop particularly close relationships. They groom one another, spend time together and, when one bat fails to find food, a close companion may share some of its own meal.

Researchers have now found something even more interesting.

Socially close vampire bats tend to develop more similar ways of communicating. In other words, bats that spend more time together can begin to sound more alike. The strongest vocal similarities were found among unrelated bats that also shared food.

It is not so different from people.

Spend enough time with someone and you may start using the same expressions, the same little jokes, even the same way of saying certain things.

Apparently, bats do something similar.

We always thought friendship was a very human idea.

Perhaps we were simply not looking closely enough at the night sky.

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