Diversity in communication

"She sounds very grumpy."
"Be careful while talking with him, he doesn't like to talk with people."
"You have a very strong Indian accent."

Many of us either make such statements or hear them daily during our day-to-day interactions with people around us. We all expect to have some homogeneity in our surroundings as far as communication styles are concerned. Most progressive societies welcome diversity of race, gender, and socioeconomic background; but when it comes to communication they want some homogeneity. Maybe this desire comes for the sake of maintaining clarity or making sure that the message is delivered effectively. In my family, my parents and I spoke different languages with each other. We perfectly understood each other, but never felt the need to communicate in the same language. I know this is not very common, but we managed to do it seamlessly. Actually, I never realized we were doing this until one day I realized this unique aspect of my family. My parents never forced their mother tongue on me, I also didn't insist that my kids should speak my mother tongue. My mother tongue is Marathi, and my wife's Bhojpuri, but our kids speak Hindi and English. They don't know either Marathi or Bhojpuri. Diversity in communication is not only a noticeable fact in today's world, but it is a need of today's world. Mobility of people has increased a lot, people move around the world for their education and employment, in search of a better and safer place. This results in a formation of very diverse societies. Such societies are not only diverse in race, culture, and religion but also in the ways people communicate with each other. 

Different people have different styles of communication. Some like to talk a lot, and some are very stringent with their speech. Some people are loud, and some are very soft-spoken. Everyone has some sort of accent, either it is a local accent or a nonlocal one, therefore, I never considered having an accent a barrier in communication. Our accent is our identity, that's the unique way we speak. I never tried to change my accent and never expected that someone else should change their accent just to sound familiar to my ears. In a same way, different people have different ways to express themselves. Some might appear aggressive, and some really mild. But, this doesn't mean that one way is better than the other. These all are different ways in which people choose to communicate with others. Each way has its own flavor and its own specialty. We should learn to enjoy this diversity rather than trying to bring forced homogeneity. Try to understand others, be patient, recognize the beauty of diversity in communication, and then you will start enjoying every accent and every style of communication. Diversity in communication is a very beautiful thing, as beautiful as diversity in opinions and diversity in population, let's embrace it.

Thanks for reading and please share your views on this topic.

[Copyright: Vinay Thakur. Please contact the author for re-posting or publishing]

Be curious, it is immensely rewarding

Curiosity is one of the reasons why humans managed to advance so much compared to any other species on this planet. It is built into our minds, if our surroundings don't curb it, we can remain curious throughout our lives, but in reality, rarely this happens. Many things contribute to diminishing our curious nature as we grow older. Children are way more curious compared to adults, and many times the curious nature of adults is labeled as being childish. Maybe adults think that they know it all and there is no need to be curious anymore. I am fortunate enough not to fall into that group. I am gifted with a permanent curiosity, my curiosity remained fairly constant since my childhood, and this has played great dividends for me. I remember my kids used to watch a TV show "Curious George," a story of a curious monkey who used to land in various troubles due to his hyper-curious nature. I loved that show as I am also a curious person. My curiosity might have landed me in trouble on a few occasions, but by far it has benefited me way more than it put me in trouble. 

Curiosity helps me to remain active. I get interested in different things, some interests remain forever, and some wane with time and new interests replace them. This continuous flow of curiosity keeps me away from chronic boredom. It helps me to find something to read, watch, or do where I can learn something new, helps me to explore ideas or things that I have never done before. It helps me to study various issues including the opinions that I don't support or agree with. I can do all this because I am curious about many things including why people believe in certain ideologies, why they need religion, how science can help to solve our problems, what is the role of the law in our society, and many more things. My curiosity led me to read many different books, listen to many seminars, and research many topics. In this process, I got to know many amazing personalities, either through books, seminars, or personal interactions. I would not have known these people without my curiosity, many of them taught me things that I value a lot, and I credit my curiosity for all this. 

I encourage my kids to remain curious about various things and try to find answers on their own. I encourage them to make efforts to gather information before forming any opinion about any issue. We should not follow any path blindly, don't be a Hindu just because your parents were Hindu, don't be a Republican (in the USA) or Congress supporter (in India) just because your parents used to support that party. Do your own research, analyze things on your own, and then decide for yourself. This is a time-consuming process and a difficult route, but this is what I did, and this process has taught me many valuable lessons. The rewards of this process outweigh the difficulties associated with it. Remember, there is no substitute for hard work, readymade answers are easy to get, but they are not the product of your own mind. If you want to churn out something from your own mind, then you need to go through the repetitive process of collecting and processing vast amounts of information on your own, and without being curious one cannot perform this task enthusiastically. One of the lessons that I learned was that there can be many right answers for social and political issues, and there is no single ideology that can provide solutions for all the problems. This also taught me the importance of diversity of opinion, the importance of appreciating disagreement, and encouraging debate. One cannot appreciate or understand diverse opinions without being curious about them. One can allow counter opinions to exist by being tolerant, but to really benefit from the diversity of opinions and ideas one needs to be curious about the views and ideas that are not our own. 

My curiosity has taken to me new areas and exposed me to ideas and views to which I may not have been exposed if I had remained complacent. It prompted me to take risks and challenge my traditional surroundings and my own beliefs It encouraged me to charter a different path than what most people chose to follow. I am not claiming that everyone's curiosity will produce the same result, but if it makes you remain active and enthusiastic about life, why not give it a try? Be curious and be happy.

Thanks for reading and please share your views on this topic.

[Copyright: Vinay Thakur. Please contact the author for re-posting or publishing]