Artwork: "Silence" by Daniela Huhurez
“He didn’t utter a word. He was staring infinitely into the space, listening intently while I kept talking animatedly about my mini-adventure with a Rupee Five-Hundred note that afternoon. The angles of his mouth slowly climbed up and settled beautifully into a curve. He was still staring into the space. I knew he was in love.” -Anonymous
Listening is an attitude of the heart, a genuine desire to be with another which both attracts and heals. Sadly, we talk too much, listen too little… forgetting the simple fact that we have been given two ears but one mouth.
“Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn life around.” All because we don’t listen. We have stopped believing in the idea of ‘indulgence’... in the process of getting involved and melting into another person’s realm of existence. Human beings have grown into narcissistic demons, assuming malignant proportions, who love hearing their own voices all day long. I say ‘hearing’ because if we were ‘listening, we’d have already chosen to stay silent and revel in the orchestrations of our own heartbeat.
Silence is a luxury only the wise can afford… because they are on a life-long quest of listening to their soul-motto and understanding what is left unsaid. The bottom-line is: they are listening. And honestly, if we could start with ‘the art of listening’ classes, it would generate better speakers than those attending the public speaking courses! People struggle with what to speak and when to speak, more than they do so with how to speak. And that is because, consumed by their king-sized egos, they are not paying enough attention to what the other person is speaking. Our world is in bad shape. Babies cry, children scream and the rest others just talk, talk and talk. Endlessly. Without sense. The paradox is: with a plethora of means of communication at our disposal, the very ‘intent’ behind the communication is missing. We hardly look in the eye while conversing… we hardly empathise… and most importantly, we hardly let the other person finish his sentence! Ours has become a sick reality painted in grey: relationships suffer, learning takes a dive and life gets trapped in a whirlwind of chaos.
Silence can pursue. Silence can connect. Silence can liberate. Silence can transform. Silence is more than just gold. It’s alchemy. Is it only a fancy co-incidence that the same letters who ‘LISTEN’ also appear when we are ‘SILENT’? And if you could discern those little crevices between the syllables, the lacuna between your heartbeats and the gaps between your fingers, who knows, maybe someday, someone would make you fall for him… even without a Rupee Five-Hundred note in his pocket… and fill those gaps?
____________________________________________________
Originally from Ranchi, Nikita is currently a medical student at the CIMS. In addition to writing, Nikita loves to read and paint. Cricket enthusiast to her core, you better not say anything against Rahul Dravid when in her presence. Or against SRK for that matter. She loves Coelho's The Alchemist and it shows in some of her work. You can read more on her blog.