It was the month of November and I had my VST (pre-final) examination. On the day of the English exam, I reached the exam hall early. After keeping my pen and admit card on my assigned desk, I decided to visit my usual classroom - the one where I attended regular classes - just to see who might be sitting in my spot, since classrooms are often changed during exams. As I entered the classroom, I noticed a beautiful girl sitting exactly in the place I usually occupied. She was smiling. I don’t know whether she was smiling at someone or something else, but that smile deeply touched me. Even during my exam, her face kept flashing in my mind. Her smile had such a strong impact that I couldn’t focus properly on my answers. I completed my English exam early, with around 30 minutes still remaining. Instead of leaving or idling, I took my answer sheet and drew a picture of that girl- not from memory, but from what had become an impression in my mind from that brief moment. Once the exam was over, I submitted the answer sheet with the sketch inside to Preetinanda Madam, our class teacher and the invigilator for the exam. A few days later, madam came to our classroom and called me out. She asked, “Who is the girl whose picture you have drawn in your answer sheet?” I replied honestly, “Madam, I don’t know her name. I had some time left, so I drew her picture.” Madam smiled and left without saying much. Later, when answer sheets were being returned to students, madam called me again and asked, “Do you want the drawing back or should I keep it?” I said, “Madam, please give it to me.” After some more days, she brought the sketch by tearing it out of the answer sheet and handed it over to me. I kept that drawing close to me and with the help of my friends, I tried to identify who the girl might be. I showed the sketch to them and surprisingly, one of them recognized the face and told me it resembled a particular girl. Since I had never seen her before, I asked my friends to find someone close to her who could help deliver the sketch as a New Year’s gift, without letting her know it was from me. Eventually, one of her friends came and had a conversation with my friends. I didn’t speak to her friend directly because I wanted to remain anonymous. I didn’t want her to know that I was the one who had sketched her.
I had told my friends to give her the drawing exactly at midnight on 31st December 2013, to mark the beginning of the New Year 2014 - a silent gesture of admiration and emotion. Even after spending 9 years in education with my friends, I never told any of them that it was me who drew that picture.
That sketch was never just a drawing - it was a moment captured forever in silence.
I never expected a reply or recognition; I just wanted her to smile one more time.
Though she never knew, that smile of hers became one of my most beautiful memories.
Years have passed, but even today, whenever I think of innocent college days, her smiling face and that sketch come alive in my memory.
Some stories are never told aloud, yet they stay forever etched in the pages of the heart.
Some memories don't need words- they bloom quietly in the heart like wildflowers after rain, remembered not for what they were, but for the way they made the soul feel alive. In the quiet winter of 2013, a fleeting smile from a stranger became a lifelong echo in the heart of a young dreamer named Jyotiranjan Gudia. That smile, gentle and unassuming, etched itself so deeply into his memory that it found its way onto the last page of an English exam- captured in a sketch, born not of practice, but of pure admiration. Jyotiranjan never expected recognition or reward; he only wished for that one smile to live on, even if only through the strokes of his pencil. And though the girl never knew the artist behind the lines, the moment remained his forever- a quiet chapter of love unspoken, framed in memory and signed silently with his heart.
