Sometimes unexpected moments help us find hidden parts of ourselves. What started as a way to avoid chores during retirement and lockdown turned into a journey of drawing, writing, creativity, and joy.
This is the story of how a simple pencil revealed the artist in me and brought me many reasons to smile.
# Dance of a Pencil #
I picked up a pencil
to escape the chores,
not to become an artist.
A blank sheet once frightened me—
I was the boy
who asked his friends
to draw my school projects.
But then life slowed down
as retirement arrived.
The world grew quiet,
the days grew long,
and I had nowhere to go.
So I began to draw.
A crooked line,
a doubtful sketch,
a picture that wasn’t perfect—
but it was mine,
and somehow,
it gave me a smile.
One drawing became two,
two became many,
and somewhere between
the lines and shadows,
I discovered
a part of myself
I never knew existed.
Then came the compliments—
“Beautiful!”
“Wonderful!”
“Keep going!”
Strange, isn’t it?
Sometimes a few kind words
can give an old heart
the courage of a young one.
“Perhaps talent doesn’t arrive late;
perhaps we simply discover it late.”
Today, I don’t draw
because I want to be an artist.
I draw because
the pencil makes me happy.
I write because
words give my memories a home.
And I continue because
there is still so much
left to discover.
The lockdown may have
closed the doors of my world,
but a pencil
opened a new one.
And perhaps
that is life’s little secret—
what begins as a way
to pass the time
can quietly become
a reason to smile.
(Vijay Verma)
www.retiredkalam.com
Categories: kavita
Retiredकलम 
What a beautiful journey. That simple pencil didn’t just fill quiet days — it quietly reveals a whole new part of us. Keep drawing, keep smiling. ✏️
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Thank you so much for your beautiful words! 🙏
You have expressed it perfectly. Sometimes the simplest things—a pencil, a blank page, a quiet morning—open doors within us that we never knew existed.
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What a beautiful and inspiring piece, Verma ji! 🌟
Your words capture something so profound—that creativity isn’t about age or formal training, but about allowing ourselves to explore, play, and discover joy in the simple act of creating. The image of a retired man picking up a pencil just to escape boredom, only to find a whole new world opening up—that’s genuinely moving.
I love these lines especially:
“Perhaps talent doesn’t arrive late; perhaps we simply discover it late.”
That’s a truth many people need to hear. So often we tell ourselves “it’s too late” or “I’m not talented enough,” when really, we just haven’t given ourselves permission to try.
And this:
“The lockdown may have closed the doors of my world, but a pencil opened a new one.”
What a powerful reminder that even in isolation and uncertainty, we can find light, purpose, and connection through creativity.
Your journey from “the boy who asked friends to draw his school projects” to someone who finds happiness in every crooked line and doubtful sketch—that’s the real art. Not perfection, but presence. Not talent, but joy.
Thank you for sharing this, Verma ji. You’ve reminded us all that it’s never too late to discover hidden parts of ourselves, and that sometimes the smallest things—like a pencil—can lead to the biggest smiles.
Keep drawing. Keep writing. Keep discovering. 🖊️✨
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Thank you so much for your beautiful and thoughtful words! ❤️
Your comment touched me deeply because you understood the real message behind my journey—not just sketching or painting, but the joy of discovering something within ourselves that may have remained hidden for years.
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