I am a little upset today. Because of both of my thumbs. The left one was grossly dirtied by that merciless election officer. Last week he made maximum use of my broad thumb to pour as much ink as possible, just because my much thinner forefinger was used for similar purpose a few months back for some other elections.
My worry is more with my right thumb though. It is swollen, paining and a bit numb. The reason ? - I developed this habit of scrolling up and down the FB and Twitter pages on my 5.5 inch mobile phone screen, quite frequently, as and when I am free ! For a change I listened to my wife, applied "Systaflem" gel, instead of good-old, stale, time tested Iodex ointment. This particular gel does wonders - once you apply it, the actual pain gets overshadowed by that strong burning sensation that the gel generates ! Until the next coat is due in an hour's time !
Let me stop paining you more with this and get into some serious stuff. Yesterday, while I was using my right thumb extensively, to scroll down and down the FB pages, going through those numerous implicit and explicit "likes" by my FB friends, suddenly I got a brilliant idea that I had to share by updating my status. I searched for that "Status/Photo/Check-in" bar ( 3 important things in my life - in FB or outside FB ), but alas, the status bar was missing. The very thought of missing that bar made me forget what I wanted to share. With no other choice, I scrolled down deep further to see more and more uninteresting posts, including many of mine as well !! The moment I stopped scrolling down and scrolled up once, that magic status bar appeared at the bottom of the screen with full glow, inviting me to update my status ! As usual, let me "over-interpret" the psychology behind this user interface design - "See/listen/observe completely to what others are saying before even thinking of sharing/acting on something new.
When talking about right thumb, I am reminded of Eklavya. Who lost his right thumb as he had to give it to Drona as "gurudakshina". He had to pay that penalty for keenly listening, observing and learning the techniques from Drona from a hide-out place !
Now thinking of Drona himself, he faltered once while listening. It proved fatal for him. Had Dhrona, who was the teacher for both Pandavas and Kauravas, listened completely and carefully to what Yudhishtra told during the Mahabharata war, the war would have ended differently ! As ever truthful Yudhishtra told "Ashwathama died" loudly in the war front, Dhrona thought it was his son who died whose name was Ashwathama. And Dhrona lost his concentration, Arjuna managed to kill him. Yudhishtra, had announced the death of an elephant by same name Ashwathama. He actually completed the sentence "Ashwathama died, the elephant" - but in a low voice that "the elephant" part, which Drona failed to hear.
`
My colleague Murthy used to call me over phone asking "What's up". With full enthusiasm I used to explain what all new initiatives I had been doing to improve my unit performance, employee productivity, billing, customer satisfaction and what not. Thinking he would reciprocate. After listening to all that, Murthy would just hang up saying "thank you". He was a good, complete listener !! Those "what's up" calls continued for a few more times, before I could realize what was actually happening, Murthy was listening carefully each time only to his benefit. Then onwards, whenever I heard "what's up" from Murthy I started talking about dry weather in Rameswaram or flood situation at Moosamari or political situation at Baluchistan or increased poultry production in Bali. Nothing official about it.
So, you need to talk also to listen from others ! "Kuch paane keliye kuch dena bhi padthaa hei" !
Then there is my friend Parasu, repeat listener. With absolutely no impact on him. Every time he meets me he will have one direct question such as "Do you think I should buy a house?". Being my pet topic I would give him a big "bhashan" on investments - equity, mutual funds, real estate, term deposits, post office savings, chit funds etc. Like a school kid Parasu will listen to all my stories and will nod his head convincingly, as if he was going to buy a house the very next week. But nothing will happen. No change what so ever in his pre-determined savings habits. Parasu will meet me after a few weeks with the same question with one additional word "Do you think I should buy a house now?". To listen to my stories all over again. He will continue this question till my stories match with what he actually wants to listen !
Yesterday morning I was listening to old Malayalam songs in Youtube. Not because I recently got an unlimited wifi connection from BSNL. Not because I enjoy songs that much. It was because I was having breakfast, that too much disliked Poha ! This technique I picked up from those good old restaurants in Kerala. They would play loud music through the radio, irrespective of the food that they provide would taste good or not. People would tend to forget the "distaste" of the food in that catchy music ! Yes, there are advantages of making people listen too.
After all this discussion on good listening practices, I still strongly feel there is a merit in listening. Otherwise so many people would not have advised me on this repeatedly. Every time when I talk to somebody, I try to tell this to him and more forcefully to myself also - "you need to listen more". Who listens that ?
My worry is more with my right thumb though. It is swollen, paining and a bit numb. The reason ? - I developed this habit of scrolling up and down the FB and Twitter pages on my 5.5 inch mobile phone screen, quite frequently, as and when I am free ! For a change I listened to my wife, applied "Systaflem" gel, instead of good-old, stale, time tested Iodex ointment. This particular gel does wonders - once you apply it, the actual pain gets overshadowed by that strong burning sensation that the gel generates ! Until the next coat is due in an hour's time !
Let me stop paining you more with this and get into some serious stuff. Yesterday, while I was using my right thumb extensively, to scroll down and down the FB pages, going through those numerous implicit and explicit "likes" by my FB friends, suddenly I got a brilliant idea that I had to share by updating my status. I searched for that "Status/Photo/Check-in" bar ( 3 important things in my life - in FB or outside FB ), but alas, the status bar was missing. The very thought of missing that bar made me forget what I wanted to share. With no other choice, I scrolled down deep further to see more and more uninteresting posts, including many of mine as well !! The moment I stopped scrolling down and scrolled up once, that magic status bar appeared at the bottom of the screen with full glow, inviting me to update my status ! As usual, let me "over-interpret" the psychology behind this user interface design - "See/listen/observe completely to what others are saying before even thinking of sharing/acting on something new.
When talking about right thumb, I am reminded of Eklavya. Who lost his right thumb as he had to give it to Drona as "gurudakshina". He had to pay that penalty for keenly listening, observing and learning the techniques from Drona from a hide-out place !
Now thinking of Drona himself, he faltered once while listening. It proved fatal for him. Had Dhrona, who was the teacher for both Pandavas and Kauravas, listened completely and carefully to what Yudhishtra told during the Mahabharata war, the war would have ended differently ! As ever truthful Yudhishtra told "Ashwathama died" loudly in the war front, Dhrona thought it was his son who died whose name was Ashwathama. And Dhrona lost his concentration, Arjuna managed to kill him. Yudhishtra, had announced the death of an elephant by same name Ashwathama. He actually completed the sentence "Ashwathama died, the elephant" - but in a low voice that "the elephant" part, which Drona failed to hear.
`
My colleague Murthy used to call me over phone asking "What's up". With full enthusiasm I used to explain what all new initiatives I had been doing to improve my unit performance, employee productivity, billing, customer satisfaction and what not. Thinking he would reciprocate. After listening to all that, Murthy would just hang up saying "thank you". He was a good, complete listener !! Those "what's up" calls continued for a few more times, before I could realize what was actually happening, Murthy was listening carefully each time only to his benefit. Then onwards, whenever I heard "what's up" from Murthy I started talking about dry weather in Rameswaram or flood situation at Moosamari or political situation at Baluchistan or increased poultry production in Bali. Nothing official about it.
So, you need to talk also to listen from others ! "Kuch paane keliye kuch dena bhi padthaa hei" !
Then there is my friend Parasu, repeat listener. With absolutely no impact on him. Every time he meets me he will have one direct question such as "Do you think I should buy a house?". Being my pet topic I would give him a big "bhashan" on investments - equity, mutual funds, real estate, term deposits, post office savings, chit funds etc. Like a school kid Parasu will listen to all my stories and will nod his head convincingly, as if he was going to buy a house the very next week. But nothing will happen. No change what so ever in his pre-determined savings habits. Parasu will meet me after a few weeks with the same question with one additional word "Do you think I should buy a house now?". To listen to my stories all over again. He will continue this question till my stories match with what he actually wants to listen !
Yesterday morning I was listening to old Malayalam songs in Youtube. Not because I recently got an unlimited wifi connection from BSNL. Not because I enjoy songs that much. It was because I was having breakfast, that too much disliked Poha ! This technique I picked up from those good old restaurants in Kerala. They would play loud music through the radio, irrespective of the food that they provide would taste good or not. People would tend to forget the "distaste" of the food in that catchy music ! Yes, there are advantages of making people listen too.
After all this discussion on good listening practices, I still strongly feel there is a merit in listening. Otherwise so many people would not have advised me on this repeatedly. Every time when I talk to somebody, I try to tell this to him and more forcefully to myself also - "you need to listen more". Who listens that ?
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