Baaa…biiii….boo…baaa…..boing! So, do you get me? No? Well, I was only speaking in baby language and yes, it does mean something. It means that I am going to write about communication. Simple, but completely non-sense to you, right?
When a mutation in a gene 200, 000 years ago enabled the speech function in the human body-machine, man must have started like a baby, with non-sense words, to communicate his ideas. Prior to that, mebbe he depended on sign language.( We still use this ancient form of communication). Everyone knows how love can be read in the eyes, curiosity– in a raised eyebrow and anger in a grim mouth. But speech evolved and we found sounds, onomatopoeic and otherwise to express ourselves.
When the limitations of sounds frustrated early man, he devised drawings to communicate his ideas. So, cave paintings, petroglyphs( drawing depicting an event), pictograms(drawings depicting a story) and ideograms( symbols depicting an idea)—all essentially ‘symbols’ came into existence. Then someone had a brighter idea—let’s make rules for drawing; let’s depict every sound with a particular symbol or something like that and lo! Standardized Alphabets were born. Thus, 7000 years ago, we created the art of writing.
Writing as a form of communication is my major area of interest. Even as I try to communicate here I am using writing as my method of communication and post inter-net, writing has indeed become an important tool of communication. Inter-net has brought it into prominence. Books were always there but like Socrates said writing helps in only ‘reminding’ those who already ‘know’. It cannot be used to teach; philosophers use it to amuse themselves. He said the reason was that writing cannot take questions or defend itself against criticism. But over the years, we have seen that our major source of knowledge has been people’s writings. Books are the tools to impart education. You listen to your teacher’s interpretation of text as a student but when you read the same book yourself you interpret your own meaning out of it which may be more evolutionary and progressive. So one can say writing speaks in different languages to different people. Everybody knows something and he is reminded of that special knowledge within him by reading someone else’s writing. So writing may not be inter-active, but will stimulate a line of thought in every individual, which may or may not be congruent with the writer’s original thought. And inter-net has in fact made writing inter-active as well. This is in itself a major step forward in the field of communication. So, Socrates, if he were alive today might have chosen the inter-net to teach his ideas but he would have soon realized you can only ‘teach’ those who already ‘know’ and didn’t I already say we all know something and depending on that something we ‘know’ we’ll choose our own teachers.
Dear readers, you can interpret the above paragraph as a metaphor to explain how blogs work and you’ll understand why you read someone’s blog and leave sycophant comments and why you ignore others.
Writing as a form of communication may be all very good, and diary writing is a proven tool for self-discovery but is it any good as a self-motivator? Plato has said that one should not write down things of importance. And recently a friend remarked that writing from your heart leads to inaction. I am wondering if that is true. It would essentially mean that diary writing, where you open up your emotional flood-gates and write frankly about yourself might help you in your self-discovery process but will not let you take positive action as long as you keep at it. Therefore, after all the navel gazing, you have to ultimately identify your needs and embark on your mission. Yet, I guess, it is not wise to push away the need for diary writing entirely once you think you have discovered your mission because at the end of the day you are a changed person at each sun-set and if you want to stay in touch with your changing person some diary writing is essential, don’t you think?
Well, after writing, man discovered tele-communication as a form of personal and mass communication. So telephones, television and inter-net became like the pigeon-messengers of historic man to take his ideas farther and actually wider. Those who have mastered tele-communication in our era are the Kings of the world. They manipulate and orchestrate our thoughts and teach us what we may want to learn. And what do you think is the next big leap in the method of communication? Take a long wild guess, please. Did you hear someone speaking in your head? You did? Then mebbe you should recognize it as the next level of communication. Soon we’ll be talking through each other’s head—someone’s called it Tele-pathy. Master it and you’ll be a man for the future-a visionary-the God of small things! Because you say it best when you say nothing at all!
V.interesting
@Prototype– Yes, ILU and Tks and TC have become romantic tete-e-tete and letters have become a thing of the past….sad and I guess instant communication has robbed us off a whole lot of in-depth writing, the gen-next will have a short fuse for love and it will all burn out pretty fast too….
i was reading a biography on Lincoln recently … ‘team of rivals’ .. there are some excerpts from letters sent during the day … it was pretty romantic … feels like we have lost all personal emotions with the internet …
Nice post and equally thought provoking comments. I dont know the merits and demerits of having a diary. I have had one since almost 20 years. No wonder I went on to have an online journal. The bottom line I think, whether it is speech, writing or telepathy is the need to communicate. The need to express.
Dear Ravinesh Kumar, (no more rectification of error is required)
The example you quote is the madness of prophecy–call it sixth instinct or telepathy from someone who wants you to know about it. But you are right–such things happen and one should pay heed to it and find out what’s wrong with their current relationship
Dear hari om chawla,
What you write about writing is absolutely correct. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on it.
Dear ravinesh,
The example you quote is the madness of prophecy–call it sixth instinct or telepathy from someone who wants you to know about it. But you are right–such things happen and one should pay heed to it and find out what’s wrong with their current relationship.
Illusions: - suppose, there is a girl named A. I saw her everyday on a certain place and because of nature’s law both attracted with each other start talking and finally decide to settle down life. Now, all of sudden another person come to that place and girl A has decided that other’s side grass is also green and one day she alone meet with that new person. So, the time and place where she meets I saw as an illusion at that particular time when she was meeting, even I can tell you exact time. Or it’s also possible, that particular incidence comes in my dream as some messenger warning that there is a danger zone. And by this way I decided to come out from that particular relationship. Is this called telepathy or 6th sense? This was only an example and nothing related with anyone’s life. Thank you.
Those who fail to communicate fully through sound, become writers. Of course, sometimes even the best orators may be good writers, but mostly they write about the thing they could not express in speech. And I feel that when we’re writing, we’re more near the truth than while speaking, because in speech one always tries to score a point, to impress, to say pleasing things, and lack genuineness. While writing, one’s main aim is to express. Of course, when it’s complete, then there comes a temptation to share it with someone, to show to those who can understand. And as for blog writing, I feel that bloggers are even more genuine than the professional writers because professional writers do it for fame and money and in order to maintain their image, may be reluctant sometimes to tell the truth. // As for sycophantic comments some blogs and ignoring others, I try to offer my view if I like a post. If the bloggers views are totally different or I don’t undersand, I ignore it …..it’s better that way.//Thanks, Naina, for your thought provoking, meaningful post.
On second thoughts I think Tele-pathy has been the most ancient form of communication–something we call animal instinct may stem from our ability to read other’s minds and read nature’s signs and symbols. So actually if we can master Tele-pathy we’ll not be visionaries but sages and yes, it still makes us God of small things!