Indians – Everyone talks. No one listens

I have a feeling that many of you will disagree with this point of view. But what’s life if we cannot even agree to disagree.

Let’s begin in at the beginning. Why am I singling out Indians. Am I implying that other cultures do not have this trait. The simple truth of the matter is “I don’t know.” I only know about Indians and hence these comments.

This was confirmed when I recently attended 3 conferences in a span of 2 weeks. That’s more conferences than I normally attend in 2 years. But then I guess they all caught up and I had no choice but to attend.

The malady started with the compere. In all 3 instances they loved the sound of their own voice. And would use standard remarks, that in most cases did not even apply.

Then came the eminent speakers. You would assume that they had reached a stage in life where they knew what they were doing. But then that would be expecting too much. Almost without fail, they all spoke of 1 subject, “I, Me and Myself”. Designed not to communicate anything new. But drive home just 1 point. How smart and eminent and knowledgeable and … the speaker was. And what’s more they all exceeded their time limits. Not many bothered to prepare for the audience.

And finally the audience. One would assume that at the very least, they would listen. But then, that would be expecting too much. They had questions. Most of them, were not questions, but mini speeches. Each of them designed to show the speaker and the rest of the audience how smart they were.

And interestingly this presents a great opportunity. Anyone willing to listen has a bright future. In the world of talkers, a listener will outperform in almost every single parameter. So my advise to you, is the advise I give my daughter, “God gave us 2 ears and just 1 mouth for a purpose”. Use it accordingly.

And this brings us to yet another irony of life. Anyone who reads and understands, doesn’t need this advise. They’re already listening. And those who need it, are unlikely to understand.