Effective Communication

Yesterday I had a meeting at Shivaji Park at noon. The October warm weather has set in the last week of September. This time the Ganpati Visarjan happened without any rains and then the temperature went up by a couple of notches. With Shivaji Park as the venue, I was assured of  shade under the trees. I absolutely abhor meeting anyone at a CCD or Starbucks kind of place. First of all, I do not like machine made tea or coffee. The tetra pack milk which is not boiled tastes 'raw'. These small little cubby holes which have got converted to Coffee places are not my thing. I find a distinct smell of  the mixture of Air conditioning, stale air, coffee and raw milk and the mop with disinfectant which they use to clean the place and the tables, nauseating. The smell issue happened as soon as I started working for a 5 star hotel. My work involved meeting corporates in their offices. Coming back to the hotel lobby to walk towards the sales offices, the smell from the restaurants would waft in. Now in fact the Trident  in Mumbai serves food in the lobby. Why not generate revenue from the lobby which was used as a free space for meetings and interviews by people! But high ceilinged lobby with an awesome sea view lost its appeal due to the smell of food and air conditioning mixed with a floral air freshener. In India, the Five star hotel Spas also overdose us with a Spa like smell with essential oils and incense. I did not find that kind of strong fragrance in the Spas in Bali, Mauritius or Thailand.

Shivaji Park had a large crowd at the gate. There was a meet up of hearing and speech impaired people. They were about 400 of them. There was a play enacted by two of them. Followed by a dance by three of them. The dance was without any music but in perfect synchronicity. The way their feet, head and hands followed the rhythm was something dazzling. The ovation was given by both hands going up in the air, fingers facing the actors, shaking vigorously. After the performance, they were all given a Samosa each to eat. Strangely, it was not  a Vada Pav.  The volunteers were also one of them. All were young happy teenagers or in their twenties. There is no way one could make out that they were having a disability or a challenge in life. All the boys were talking, joking and laughing after the event. We had our meeting on the 'Katta' surrounded by these people who were really celebrating their Sunday. We could complete our meeting with velocity as there was silence in the air. There were no human sounds except for an odd vendor who insisted we buy his wares. So many happy students and yet no noise. The communication was still there and effective too. I realised the power of sign language. They did not have the ability to hear or speak and yet they were communicating beautifully. We, with all our body parts working, what stops us from communicating with our near ones? 

This morning, I was telling my Yoga instructor about how I have started my evening walk to Siddhi Vinayak. He immediately said "I hope you are not chatting while walking". I realised I walk alone but am on the phone catching up with friends. I think that is effective utilisation of my time. He said when we talk less, we conserve energy. That is why our Rishis or sages used to be on Maun Vratt. 'Maun' helps us save energy. If you can greet someone with a gesture, there is no need to use words. It keeps the 'Chitta'  or the mind alert and aware. I thought of  all those happy people at Shivaji Park and smiled.