LISTEN !

 

Listening is  key to effective communication . If you see your sense organs, it is apparent that the Creator has given you two ears and one tongue for a reason: listen double to what  you speak.  

Research reveals that people spend 70 % of their work life in communication, and listening occupies a lion's share of 45%. Talking accounts second with 30 %, reading and writing rank third and fourth with 16 % and 9 % respectively.

A good listener is always superior in his actions than a glib talker who runs out of words as well as energies. Without paying much attention, they indulge in futile talk which may help enemy to ascertain his plans.  

Listening is obvious to increase your analytical  and judgemental faculties.  Listening skills benefit a lot in personal life, like having great number of friends and improved social networking and more importantly a high self-esteem.

The importance of listening need not be over-emphasized for a marketing professional  whose job is to connect more with his clients. If you are a good listener, it will give a lasting impression at personal level and contribute to both to your personal and organizational growth.   For software professionals  this faculty is of paramount importance to know minutely the user experience for which they have to pay attention and this could be possible only through effective listening.

In nutshell, listening gives an unparalleled wisdom to know about the other person. So next time when anyone try to speak to you,  allow him/ her to do so, instead of interrupting in the middle. It is not only a good manner, but an intelligent way of tackling other person in consonance with his/her emotional needs.

WHAT IS ELEPHANT'S MEMORY ?

 

I was pretty amazed one night when I read that former Chief Election Commissioner of India T.N. Seshan had an elephant's memory and he could quote verbatim long passages, be it from scriptures, prose or poetry.  This former Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer from South India was labelled as the  hardest nut to crack in the political circles of his times.

When I see my reading commitments with books piled up on my table, I wish that all information in those books should go into my brain instantly like Director S. Shankar's Tamil science fiction  movie Enthiran in which the hero Dr. Vaseegaran  creates a sophisticated android   that  astonishes the audience with jaw-dropping tricks like reading bulky books/magazines in a blip of second with it's X-Ray eyes.

I wonder whether that  is within human possibility or not.  I can't summarily dismiss that act as shown in that movie.  But there is enough evidence to prove the power of human brain through powerful personalities like Swami Vivekananda who is blessed with such photographic memory.

If we go into the mechanics of memory, it is said that our memory works basically on one cardinal principle : Interest is the mother of attention and attention is the mother of  memory.  If a thing ignites you enough and when you feel the need to memorize, you could do it effortlessly.

When it comes to Elephant's Memory,  I read that Former President of India Pranab Mukherjee is gifted with a phenomenal memory power.  Even in his ripe age, he used to  read a lot and write  journal/diary.     Why it is called elephant's memory because the elephant never forget.   It doesn’t have appreciable eyesight, but it never forgets a face.  The elephants in the group check one another out with their trunks.  Another interesting fact is that  elephants also recall routes to alternate food and water sources when their usual areas dry up. 

The elephant's memory is not an illusion and one could  cultivate it through self effort.

I AM A READING AMBASSADOR

Reading is like an opium that addicts you! The itching increases with time, but it keeps you sane all through life !

I was born in a family where my father used to read newspapers and magazines with large chunks of time. I could vividly remember that even a waste paper that comes to his way with a snack is not neglected and he takes a curious look at it to find any interesting stuff to read. That habit stealthily entered into my system and stayed there.  May be that is the possible reason for my habit of high dose of reading or you could say, it encoded in my genes!

Latest research on genetics says that you can change your gene activity at any time. It further says that your genes are fluid, dynamic, and responsive to everything you think and do. Scientists say that Earth's 2.8-billion-year-old genetic legacy is present inside each of us right now. They also say that DNA is responsive to everything that happens in our lives. This opens a new a flood of opportunities for self-improvement, and reading is no doubt one such activity that has no substitute !

Joseph Addison rightly says that reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body. It means you need to read something on daily basis to sharpen the saw. Honestly speaking it keeps my youthful vigour in tact, even at 50+. This is not self-trumpeting but a naked truth.

In this age of Information Democracy, many of us believe that internet substituted all our knowledge and information needs. But that notion is absurdly wrong. Books continue to have their dominance to inspire and guide our lives.

The reason for the innate need to read is our wish to step into the shoes of other person - writer/ author and gain his/her insights or world view or fantasy world. The more you read, the better would be your world view. My 35 years of reading saga has brought some revolutionary changes in my persona and it never keeps my life dull !

At last count, I find that approx. 150 books are on my conveyor belt and this speaks that I am a self-appointed Reading Ambassador of books of my choice. In fact this term Reading Ambassador is coined by Publishers Association of United Kingdom who requested all book-lovers to become Reading Ambassadors in their communities. They believe that a good book spreads with a word of mouth and the Social Media is our extended mouth!

Generally publishers tend to approach newspapers and magazines to offer book reviews for their newly published books. Marketing the books through a network of bloggers is still an alien concept in publishing industry. I am optimistic that in the coming years, a trend to appoint bloggers as Reading Ambassadors would revolutionize the book-sale business and it would help to grow the booklovers.

If any such opportunity comes to my way, I love to be a Reading Ambassador.

Hope somebody is listening in the publishing fraternity !

MY INTERACTION WITH A BOOK LOVER

 

      Image Courtesy : My Samsung Galaxy E7 Smartphone  

There is no friend as loyal as a book    - Ernest Hemingway

At 50+, I am not overzealous for material possessions.  I just want my daily life move effortlessly without losing steam.  In the process of maintaining energy and enthusiasm, I rely on   books. 

Books occupy a good part of my life.  Not only   they provide me very valuable information and update my knowledge, they help me to marshal up my inner resources to think differently, creatively so as to live each moment passionately.

With this mindset, I manage not to allow ageing symptoms creep into my system. Though, my body has some signs of it, at mental level, I am much more vigorous than in my 20s-30s.  The credit for this could be attributed to some of the great books I read. 

For five days in a week, it is a virtual sprint in my professional life, leaving little scope to put to pen on thoughts I feel to write.   So when Saturday dawns in, I quickly unlock the Writer's chamber in my mind and live two days there and lock and enter back into frenzy world of toxic emotions for bread and butter.   This  switching of gears needs sturdiness of mind and hope the Almighty is releasing it in abundant quantities in me.

It is great that the  winter  brings tremendous joy to the writer in me.   I don't wish Heaven should come to my way.  I just wish to have trouble-free solitary walks to properly stack my thoughts to churn out some good prose or verse.  While choosing the places, I lay more stress on those locations which are near to Nature. 

A few years ago during my stay in Delhi, one day, I chose the above foot-over-bridge in South Delhi for my reading saga.  The reason was  that the place was more vibrant with roaring traffic below the bridge and  walking  on that bridge on that balmy evening brought me so much joy and I spent a good one hour in reading a book.

While I was deeply immersed in my reading, one foreign woman tourist approached me with a smile and asked me to take my snap.   When I asked the reason, she told me that it was very strange to find someone reading in public places in India.   My reading on that bridge with the aid of street light might have triggered her to approach me.  During exchange of words, she further narrated her own story of how her dad inspired her to read books in her childhood that helped her to build a personal library. 

Meeting  like-minded people gives a joy of its own sort.   My brief interaction with a book lover on that evening  gave  a tremendous joy to my heart.