I need a wake-up call...

This happened more than 17 years back, when I was still a teenager - way too cynical about everything around me. I prided myself in finding everything that is wrong with anything - movies, books, people, places etc. My cousin visited us after many years. Now, when I say cousin, please do not imagine another teenager. My cousin was a couple of years older than my father. In a family as big as my mother, this was not uncommon, nor was it uncommon to find nephews and nieces who were older than me!

Anyway, this cousin was one of the most creative people in my family. My mother had often told me how he would create small wonders and show-pieces out of waste articles like toys from coconut shells, paintings on the ceiling fan to give a lovely effect when the fan is switched on and so on. He was also popular in the family for having changed the maximum number of jobs within a certain number of years.

He described with great passion his current job in a prawn farm - how the prawns were bred, ‘harvested’ and then processed through machines which smeared them in bread crumbs, roasted them, packed them in tins them and so on. The love with which he described the process would have made one think that he loved eating prawns, had one not known that he had never tasted any.

We were talking about my school and the subjects. I was talking with the same indifference that one often finds in teenagers about how the whole system was wrong and how the subjects were of no use. Without seeming to advise he started talking fondly about the subjects and suggested I keep writing as I read, for it was easier to remember what one writes down than what one reads.

It is strange what memories one tends to carry from one’s past. I do not remember a lot of things from that year. I don’t even remember the exact year. I don’t really remember everything we talked about. However I do remember that we watched a mediocre tamil movie (and I still remember the title of the movie) and as always, I was pointing out the various faults with the movie - how absurd the dialogues sounded, how stupid the costumes looked etc. My cousin on the other had, suddenly said how interestingly an actor reacted or some such thing. I don’t remember exactly what he said, only that he managed to find something good in a trashy film!!

I would not say that I was jolted out of my negativity. I thought for a few days. I discussed it with my mother and realized that this person had probably more reasons to feel negative about one thing or the other. All the time he stayed at home, he did not speak anything negative about his previous jobs, but spoke with interest on his current one. It is a different story that he left this one a while later too, but the crux of the matter is how much he lived and loved the present.

I have often thought about that evening. I have not changed completely as a person. I did not become a motivational speaker overnight. I still get frustrated at uncertainty and with a lot of people inside and outside of work. But this memory has often helped in some small degree at least in putting aside the negativity for a while at least, if not come completely out of it.

Of late it has become increasingly difficult to stay positive. Changes at the workplace and constantly hearing how we are all ‘resources’ for the company and not people, news everyday bringing out one scandal after another in the country and in my state, large hoardings of corrupt politicians smiling shamelessly decorating the roads that I cannot avoid on the way to work - there are countless things that fuel the frustration and depression. I really wish I get another wake-up call to help me come out of it. One that will jolt me out of my coma and make me feel alive again!!

Season diary - 2010

Timing is crucial in almost every thing and only when I see how often my well-laid plans go for a total toss do I appreciate once again the existence of God!!

I know I am starting off with my usual pseudo-philosophy, but then when one is dealing with situations beyond one's control, what else can one do but (pseudo) philosophize!! Anyway, back to matters actually at hand (or maybe already out of hand), it is a wonder how our customers, on-site and offshore managers - everyone really - know how much I look forward to ensure that I am in Chennai during December every year and precisely time my on-site visits at that time! I had to go exactly before the music season started - mid-November - and return towards the fag end of December(on Christmas really) so that I can go concert hunting half-groggy from jet-lag like a beggar goes after left-over food and lap up what I still can during the remaining few days. Yet surprisingly, I have managed to attend about 3 of them so far and am hoping to catch one or two more in the next 2 weeks.

However, this post is not about my on-site trip, the assignment, my achievements there or the lack of them etc. Nor is it a scholarly write-up on the concerts that I attended. It is more about some things that I noticed during the concerts - much like the post I had written last year about the same time.

• Audience punctuality - This is something we seriously lack and it is extremely frustrating to see people walking in to the concert hall anywhere from 5 minutes to a full hour later and disturbing the others who are enjoying the concert. People moving around in a concert hall does not make for a pretty sight. Also the shifting in seats to let the latecomers settle down and the entire settling down process itself is quite noisy and distracting - definitely to the rest of the audience, and may be to the artist too!! My aunt had been to an opera in NY and she told me that apparently the doors to the hall were locked once the show started and people were not let in if they were late. Why can't we do something like that?
• Audience discipline - Raga identification is a serious affliction most carnatic music aficionados suffer from. For some of them it is like getting hold of the newspaper first thing in the morning -the brain starts functioning only after reading the day's headlines. Similarly we have to identify the ragam of a song within the first 5 seconds of the song/ alapanai. It is a secret race that all of us in the hall know is on, but pretend otherwise. So while I understand the need to identify the ragam of the song, what I cannot understand is that buzzing sound that I hear even after it is identified. This time, during a concert by Jayashree Ramnath, two elderly gentlemen who sat 2 seats away from me, were oblivious to the rest of the people in the hall including the musician on the stage. They identified the ragam and then launched into some serious discussion on the technicalities of the ragam and so on. I tried glaring at them, vocalizing my irritating through 'tchh'es and sighs. But like I said, they were in their own world. I only wish that my world had not come in touch with theirs at that time!! I was grumbling to my mother all the way back home, on how horrible it was that these old men had to choose the same concert that I had and chose to sit in the same row too!!
• The Costume - Male artists can choose to be simple like Sanjay Subramanyan and his accompanists. They were clad in simple white dhotis and shirts. On the other hand, artists like TM Krishna come in different coloured kurtas and some young music enthusiasts come to check out Krishna's kurta along with the music! The definition of simplicity for Female artists on the other hand is very different. Jayashree Ramnath, the simplest of them all, still has to wear at least a silk sari with a broad zari, a necklace and flowers. The showiest of them all (and arguably more popular) Sudha Raghunathan on the other hand, comes to perform like a walking advertisement for a silk saree shop , gold jewellery shop and a florist. Her interviews in magazines during the season are also more on the sarees she plans to wear for the different concerts, how she has never repeated a saree on stage and so on. In CM world, one often uses the term 'ghanam' (heavy) often to describe some ragams, voices etc. Sudha's voice may or may not qualify as ghanam, but she definitely does. I am eagerly waiting for the day when a female artist wears a cotton saree and bare minimum or no jewellery and the audience can listen only to the music and not wonder where she shopped for this concert!
• The food - Technically my first foray into this music season started with food!! My mother and brother had already sampled the food at Narada Gana Sabha and had made plans for my first day back in Chennai. So I jumped directly into the season with a lunch at the sabha canteen on the same day I landed! The sabha parking lot was full and all along I thought it was for the music. Now I know otherwise!! My brother who still thinks that it is a crime to step inside a sabha, insisted that we should go to Music Academy on the 1st of January, because my nephew told him that the food at that canteen was great!! It turned out that the canteens functioned only during the peak 'season', i.e., December 15th to 31st, so we had to come back disappointed.
• And finally the Music - Although I could not attend all the concerts from the start of the season, I tried to make do with the shortened concerts telecast by Jaya TV which were available for viewing in the US too. But a live concert is so much more than the songs themselves and I had asked my father to get me tickets for Sanjay Subramnayan's concert on the day after I landed. Sanjay may come dressed very humbly, but the concert on the other hand was extremely colourful and joyful. Sanjay's enthusiasm on stage is often infectious and he was almost jumping with verve throughout the concert. My mother who pretends to not 'understand' carnatic music and often tells me that she does not particularly care for male singers, was with me during the concert and was enjoying herself thoroughly. The effort that Sanjay puts in for every concert is unbelievable. He was belting out popular and new songs with equal ease left right and center and in the final RTP (ragam tanam pallavi) segment, showered the audience with rarely sung Hindustani ragas teasing the audience with the swaras and then with his trademark sly smile giving out the name of the ragam. It was pure musical bliss and after the 3.5 hours concert we came out fully satisfied like we had had a ten-course meal! Jayashree's (popularly called Bombay Jayashree) concert which I attended 2 days later was a complete contrast. Her voice is soothing and weighty ('ghanam') at the same time and the overall effect was very pleasing. TM Krishna, who had not performed the whole season was the star of yesterday's concert. In Chennai music circuit, TMK and Sanjay are like Rajnikanth. They are both crowd pullers and can do no wrong in the eyes of their fans. TMK has a great voice quality and his concert was full of fireworks with many popular krithis in tamil, telugu and sanskrit.

So once again, Chennai's music season draws to an end. While I missed the better part of it, I still intend to catch a few more, even if it means missing work. Work can wait, music season cannot. Talkative mamas and mamis and insensitive audience members notwithstanding, a live concert experience has no equal. In every good concert, there is always a moment when the musician, the audience and the music become one and there is that microsecond of pure unadulterated bliss. This microsecond is worth any number of annoyances!!

Management Lessons Learnt

A week away from my laptop in a management program was almost as good as a vacation, with learning happening alongside. This was a program for middle management with people from all over the organization staying in our beloved ‘College-hostel’ like guest-’house’.

Some random thoughts after the program:

a. Not all talks on management related topics are boring. A (very) few were inspiring, a few interesting, a few provoked some serious introspection - but even the driest lecture had something about it to at least make us laugh (for reasons I would rather not mention).

b. Some minor inconveniences only help in seeing the bigger picture. In the beginning two of us were asked to share each of the guest house rooms. Later, eight of us, stayed inside a not-so-primitive tent, although the only characteristic we shared was gender. We developed a good rapport by the end of the 6 days and got to know a few people better.

c. Shyness is only a function of time. Also it is difficult to continue the pretence of being a serious intellectual, who is silent because her thoughts are too profound and not because she has nothing interesting or witty to say. Fortunately the program ended before the entire truth stumbled out about you-know-who!!

d. Managers are not necessarily aggressive people - at least not all the time - and usually not when more aggressive people are around

e. Managers are normal people and are as crazy as any other person. In fact some of them are crazier than Govinda’s films. If they appear serious, it is because someone somewhere told them that that is how managers behave!

f. Art is a major ice-breaker and can quickly bring the guard down for most people. A few songs during the bonfire in the outbound learning centre and we were all suddenly great friends.

g. No matter how tough one is, it is still very touching to see people being protective about you especially when you hardly know any of these people. We were all doing some dare-devil stunts (and the military guys at the outbound centre would roll their eyes if they heard the activities described this way!!) and I was touched when my colleagues around me stopped their activity to make sure I got down without harming myself. (And then it could also be because they were afraid that I would hurt them in the process of saving myself !!)

h. It is a great feeling when you can overcome your fears. One of the activities at the outbound learning centre was rappelling - climbing down a large rock substituting for a cliff, with a rope tied on one end to a facilitator standing on top of the rock and the other passing through your harness. The experts did a demo of it and it was scary. You have to actually stand perpendicular to the rock while climbing down putting your life in the hands of the facilitator at the top. My heart was thudding louder than my loudest possible voice. But I knew I had to do it. Where else was I going to get the opportunity?? And I did it and it felt great.

i. It takes a lot of courage to refuse to do things you are not comfortable doing. A few of our colleagues were scared of climbing down the rock. I was really impressed that they dared to say no in spite of the tremendous peer pressure they were under!

j. No matter how many programs you attend, there is always something new that you discover in the next one. I met some interesting people and not all of them were from our company. We had a session by this amazing gentleman who dreamt of retiring at the age of 40 and did it. He now works for 2 days a week and follows his dreams for the rest of the week. I have the same plan too and I only wish I am as brave as him when I turn 40 !!

k. Great leaders are almost always simple. This was proven again and again during these 6 days. Apart from the usual suspects, we had a session by a neurosurgeon on the last day of the program. This was a program that many in our group were sceptical about. And this was the program that was universally acknowledged as the best of the lot at the end of the 6 days. The man was so full of knowledge that I could almost see knowledge oozing out of his every pore. Yet he was humility personified. People could not stop raving about him and the impact he had on them at the end of the program.

l. Once you have seen a person at his most vulnerable state, it becomes easier to think of him as human and work better with him.

m. No matter what you think of your appearance, a comment about your age or your looks is still capable of rattling you at least a little!!

Many of these leaders proved that to be a good leader, you don’t necessarily have to be aggressive or loud. You do not have to be serious or speak impeccable English. You don’t have to talk about how much you know. Greatness, like good food, advertises itself!!

Great Pick-me-ups

Not to be confused with pick-up lines, but some things that help in changing my mood for the better most of the times:

• The sight of my niece or listening to her talk
• ‘Sri Satyanarayanam’ or ‘Mayamma’ by Sanjay
• Lalgudi’s violin recital
• Picking up the phone and saying ‘Hi’ to my friend who can immediately sense my mood and listen to him prattle on endlessly about absurd stuff, without expecting a reply from me
• Any book by Wodehouse or Sujatha
• Singing the lines ‘Vaazhkai enraal aayiram irukum- Vaasal thorum vedanai irukum; vanda thunbam eduvenraalum; vaadi ninraal oduvathillai - Edayum thaangum idayam irundaal iruthi varaikum amaithi irukum’ (In life thousands of things happen, at every phase sorrows may affect you, but any difficulty does not go away if you sit and sulk about it. If you have a strong heart that can take anything, you will be peaceful till the end), from the song ‘Mayakkama Kalakkama’ by Kannadasan
• Go for a long walk
• Listen to my mother talk
• Spend time in the company of people who don’t find it necessary to fill silences with words.

None of the above cost anything and they work for me. What about you?

Bommai - A 24 hour story

There are times when I have a strange and uncontrollable urge to watch a good movie. I look at my long list of movies and have no mind to watch even one. I look at my DVD library in vain to find one Tamil/Hindi movie that I want to re-watch and I just cannot find one. And these are moments when even my most favourite movie in any other language (Its a wonderful life or Children of Heaven etc. for example) will simply not do.

And I go to flashback mode when DD would throw movies to us like a miser throws food to a beggar - one a week, not including the Hindi movie on Saturday and the regional snoozefest movie of the week on Sunday afternoons (which I still watched by the way!!). I have watched many many movies that would have scarred a normal person irreparably and came out unscathed (although a few others may claim to have discovered the mystery behind my weirdness finally). As a rule, DD would play movies that no person would pay a video lending library hard-earned money for. But DD did something wonderful too. It was (and probably is) the only channel that regularly screened old B&W movies. Thinking back, I think DD’s whole strategy was to make people appreciate B&W movies - Give the viewers a series of torture flicks that were not B&W until they beg for mercy and then give them a B&W movie, which at least had a story!!

I grew up with a healthy appreciation for the B&W movies, thanks to my mother, who would play old songs on radio and cassette players non-stop. I was at home last weekend, when my mom’s remote-crazy fingers finally settled on a channel. I looked up from my book to see one of my favourite movies of yesteryears called ‘Bommai’ (’The Doll’). I watched the movie again after more than 10 years and watched it with renewed appreciation for the style and the script.

It was almost like Hitchcock had made a tamil movie. The movie had a lot of novelties. For starters, it was a thriller and story happens over a period of 24 hours. None of the actors were stars and the script ruled. The movie was written and directed by the maverick director - S. Balachander, who was more popularly known as Veenai Balachander for his prowess with the Veena.

Another interesting tidbit about the music is that the movie featured a song which was sung by a beggar. The rhythm of the song is very slow and the lyrics very philosophical. The young singer who debuted in film music with this song, supposedly lamented that his career was starting off on such an unattractive note. However his career took off and he never looked back. He became one of the most popular singers in India, singing in all Southern languages and becoming quite popular in Hindi too. The singer was none other than K.J.Yesudas!!

The plot of the movie centers around a plot by a group of friends to kill their boss with a bomb hidden inside a doll. Each person in the group has a different reason to hate the boss, none of them noble. The boss, a wealthy old man, is on his way to Singapore and a few in the group have reasons to fear this trip. As a result, they plan to meet with him in the airport and hand over the doll to him, asking him to deliver it to a friend in Singapore. The paper containing the address is pasted to the back of the doll and the trigger for the bomb is attached to it. Unfortunately, they miss the doll in the taxi on their way to the airport. The taxi is then hired by a young couple who find the doll and decide to steal it to gift it to their daughter. The story follows the doll and its misadventures. Does the gang recover the doll? Does the boss get killed? These are questions answered in the end of the movie.

To say that the movie was ahead of its times would be grossly understating it. The nail-biter sequences rival classic thriller movies of all times. Cinematography was brilliant although it was a black and white movie. Songs were composed by S.B himself and are all very pleasing. I especially love the song- ‘Engo pirandavaram’ - a lovely composition in Sahana, which is a proof of S.B’s knowledge of classical music.

S.Balachander made about 4-5 movies in total, almost all of them were thrillers. I remember at least 2 others. ‘Nadu Iravil’ is another classic and was a trendsetter when it released. It was probably the first movie (and only one for a long time!) to have no songs. I remember being blown away by the way the screenplay was written, even at an age when I did not know what a screenplay was! The other is ‘Nadu Iravil’ - a thriller based loosely on the Agatha Christie mystery ‘And then there were none’ (Gumnaam was made much later).

Bommai’s uniqueness was present till the last slide showing ‘Vanakkam’. After the movie ends, SB appears on the screen and requests the audience to stay on for a few more minutes. He talks about the story and introduces the actors and all the technicians - every single one of them including the person who supplied food and tea, the lightman etc., in person. He ends with the statement - ‘And I forgot an important character in the movie’ and the camera zooms to the doll used in the movie and the slide showing ‘Vanakkam’.

Now with all the money poured in, the ’stars’ and wooden models posing as actors, money spent on advertising and media crying hoarse about how the styling of actors of an upcoming movie was done and how much was spent for a certain costume in the movie, the core of a movie - the story is lost. And the innumerable songs and dramatic style of acting notwithstanding, most B&W movies make me long for the days when story will again become the king in any movie!!

P.S: For a very interesting write-up on S.Balachander, visit this link containing a fond remembrance by his nephew:

http://v-s-gopal.sulekha.com/blog/post/2008/04/the-legendary-genius-of-s-balachander-remembrance.htm

Dante’s Equation - When Physics met Judaism!!

When I read Eric Segal’s ‘Acts of Faith’ the first time, I had very little idea about Judaism and Jewish customs. Those were days when I had not yet resorted to searching Wikipedia and other sites for every single thing. And rather than read a treatise on the religion itself, the book gave some insight on one of the oldest religions of the world. It remains one of my favourite novels of all times.

Years later, I came across the 2003 novel Dante’s Equation by Jane Jenson and read about the book before reading the book itself. The back-cover told me that the novel had equal parts science, science fiction and Kabbalah (Jewish mysticism). My curiosity was piqued. I had been reading way too many legal thrillers and murder mysteries and people had started noticing a manic gleam in my eyes recently and I decided to turn a new leaf for a change! The name ‘Dante’ in the title only made my interest stronger. A year back I read a novel called ‘The Dante Club’ by Matthew Pearl and found it a great read. And so I started reading this novel.

The first half of ‘Dante’s Equation’ has 4 parallel threads. Similar to ‘Acts of Faith’, chapter titles refer to the main character of the thread.

a. Denton Wyle - A playboy reporter who works for a magazine called ‘Mysterious World’ in LA. As the name suggests, the magazine runs stories on mysterious occurrences throughout the world. At the time the novel starts, Denton is working on an article on mysterious disappearances all over the world, since he has witnessed one of his brother when he was a child. Denton Wyle is described as a shallow and selfish person who cannot be called a hero in any respect.

b. Aharon Handalman - A rabbi (Jewish priest) and Torah scholar who believes that the Torah has hidden codes in the form of arrays. He is working on identifying recurring patterns and key-words in the Torah to determine secret messages if any with his assistant/student.

c. Jill Talcott, Nate Andros - Dr. Jill Alcott is a physicist who thinks she has made the discovery of a lifetime, by way of discovering a new wave that is capable of altering the surroundings. Her assistant/student Nate is dedicated and is smitten by her but Jill pretends to not notice.

d. Calder Farris - The mandatory villain of the novel. A cold-blooded mercenary working for the US Department of Defense, his primary responsibility is to identify and bring to notice of DoD, advancements in weapons technology from non-mainstream sources like scientists.

Denton Wyle hears about the disappearance of a Jewish physicist called Yosef Kobinski in the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland during the Holocaust. He also chances upon a few pages of manuscript of a book titled ‘The book of torment’ that Kobinski wrote while in the concentration camp. He goes in search of the remaining pages of the manuscript to understand the reason behind Kobinski’s disappearance.

Rabbi Handalman comes upon quite a few references of Kobinski in the arrays in Torah. Along side the physicist’s name also occur other ominous words like weapon, destruction etc. Rabbi decides to investigate and ends up going to Washington to meet with Jill Talcott.

Jill Talcott and Nate realize that they have discovered something significant after running successful tests with the wave generator. They name the wave one-minus-one. The wave apparently seems to affect the surroundings and Jill surmises that it is because the wave disturbs the fabric of space and time.

Calder Farris finds that Jill Talcott has hit upon something that could possibly be used as a weapon and goes to meet with her. Meanwhile, while increasing the frequency of the wave, Jill falls sick and leaves the lab and the lab is burnt due to a furnace blast in the building.

Rabbi Handalman shows her the pages of Kobinski’s manuscript that he has managed to trace and shows the mathematical equations that Kobinski had written in the manuscript. Apparently Kobinski had already arrived at the wave equation. According to his theory, the wave alters the good or evil quality of a person.

As it usually happens in many movies, all the protogonists of the story end up in Auschwitz and disappear through the black hole. Depending on the nature of the person, they end up in different universes and/or galaxies.

Here onwards, the novel becomes a bit too bizarre for my taste. But that is probably because I do not enjoy fantasies much (LOTR being a rare exception). However, like every good Hollywood/Indian masala movie, all is well that ends well and all of them return to Earth. And even better every character has changed for the better.

The first half of the book is a real page-turner with action happening throughout. I liked the way Jensen linked wave theory and Jewish beliefs. Although multiple threads of narrative run in parallel, clarity is not lost. The characters were all well-etched and fully rounded, i.e., no perfect guy or no rotten-to-the-core guy.

The second half was very well written too, except that I frequently lost interest. For some reason books/movies on aliens, alternate universes etc. have never been of interest to me. In all the books/movies on aliens, human beings tend to project themselves on to the alien’s physiology, mind-set etc. and the limitation of such imagination shows. Aliens are described to be minor variations of a human being, with a torso, upper and lower limbs, all the sense organs etc. It is the same case here. The planets were different - multiple suns, different gravitational forces, different types of animals (still quadrupeds), different ‘languages’ but the aliens were still humanoids!! (I had the same gripe with Avatar too!). But to be fair to the author, she manages to create unique universes and people and troubles and keeps up the pace here too.

The idea of choosing a well-known event in the past, i.e., the Holocaust to represent total evil and thus one of the possible places for the ‘black hole’ was great. It was also interesting that there are many Jewish who believe that the Torah holds many encrypted messages and prophesies and have devoted their lives to its study.

So is this great literature? By no measure !! But it is definitely a good read. A much better piece of fiction than, say, Dan Brown’s best-seller ‘The Da Vinci Code’, since although it uses religion and religious beliefs as the back-drop, at no point does it ridicule them. Instead the novel treads a safe path by showing a common meeting point for the two.

The Unspoken Word

They say the pen is mightier than the sword. Words, when effectively employed supposedly are very potent, capable of overthrowing governments and changing lives. How relevant this saying is in today’s world of ‘Sensational Headlines’ that hold the readers’ attention for less than a day, is debatable.

But think of the common person’s life, where pens figure rarely. After all, the most basic form of slander - gossip requires no pen/keyboard to start or spread! Think of at least 5 instances from your past where you fought with a friend/relative. What sparked the argument/quarrel? Do you remember everything that was said by you or the other person or do some words stick out in particular?

Think of your role as a person who cast aspersions instead of the usual thought of being victimized. Are you able to recollect a word that you spoke before thinking about its impact and wished later you had never spoken? Or one that triggered so many more words that the whole memory of its utterance lies buried in your subconscious?

So, what exactly am I trying to say here? (Thanks for staying with me till here and trusting me to actually say something!). Here is my theory. I think that silences at the right times are way more powerful than words. And I am not talking only about quarrels/arguments with loved ones. Silences are mighty useful in a lot of other scenarios. Sample these:

a. When you cannot think of anything witty enough to say, silence, accompanied by a knowing smile is construed as depth of character (Experience speaks).

b. Silence in response to a person who is shouting his/her head off, is seen as a sign of emotional maturity and the speaker (shouter?!?) feels admonished without being told anything.

c. Maintaining silence when nasty comments are made about others in gossip sessions, ensures that you never have to eat back your words in the future.

d. Remaining silent when your manager badgers you and tries to force you to agree to do something that you don’t want to do, says NO louder than words do (after the first verbal ‘No’ of course - again this is from experience).

If you have to speak, here is what some great people have said about speech in general. And the last one is superb!

‘Iniya ulavaga innadha kooral kani iruppak kaai kavarndhatru’- Tiruvalluvarl in Tirukural

(Using harsh words when sweet words are available, is like seeking an unripe fruit when a ripe one is available).

‘Aisi baani biliye mann ka aapa khoy

Auran ko seetal karey, aapahu seetal hoi’ - Kabir

(Speak words that make the sorrows of the heart go away - Words that please others and please you too)

And on the power of the Unspoken word, by my favourite poet/lyricist Kannadasan :

‘Sollada sollukku vilayedum illai’ - from the song ‘Naan pesa ninaipathellam’

(The unspoken words are priceless)!!

All Hail the Unspoken Word!!