I didn’t have a wristwatch in college, and I never missed it — except during exams, when every minute counted. Our exam seating was fixed according to our roll numbers, so I always sat behind the same classmate.
One day, I noticed he was wearing a watch. I asked if he could take it off and place it on the table so I could see the time from behind. He agreed without hesitation. From then on, during every exam until we graduated, without me asking, he would take his watch off and set it up on the table, standing it on its steel band so it was easier for me to see.
Decades later, I reconnected with him. He had joined the Army and was now a Colonel. I told him how much that small gesture had meant to me. He laughed it off, saying it was nothing.
