Saturday, February 16, 2013

You say it best, when you say nothing at all...



There have always been a few words I thought I was incapable of understanding and some concepts I was unwilling to accept. One such example is “Silence”.

This writing of mine is a result of a lot of thinking and retrospection. Its funny how life has handed me a number of situations where remaining silent would’ve been the best thing to do; but such a thing did not exist in my dictionary and hence I always ended up making some noise. I always had to have the last word. 

Silence is Golden” was absolute bullshit in my head. People who are extremely close to me will know this, oh yes I fight, if you are important and I have made place for you in my heart, and you did something to hurt me, I will fight with you. I will pull your hair out. But till today, I never thought of keeping quiet as an option.  For me, keeping quiet either meant, you have nothing to say to me, or you just accept you are at fault, which automatically meant you lost the fight.
My mathematics were, silence = defeat. Evidently, I was not mathematically sound :P 

There have been multiple occasions where my mom has told me, “Silence is the greatest source of Strength”. It was just like one of other few things she told me, “Go fold your bed-sheets”; or “Brush your teeth every night” or “Don’t eat junk”. I listened, no doubt. Never thought about it nor obeyed. But she was right. Experience is the teacher of all things.

When you get shot with a bullet right in your head, you die an instant death. You don’t feel the pain as much. It’s just too fast. It happens way too quickly.
But what is more painful is having a shot at a place where you are left to bleed to death. Every second of every minute you’d probably feel death is a lot easier.

Silence is that feeling. It kills you. It’s the best and the worst form of punishment.
When you fight with someone, and the other doesn’t reciprocate, nothing is worse than that. You want him to retort, you want him to give it back, you very badly want to provoke him; it kills you to know that he is keeping quiet after all that you have said. It just shows who's the bigger person, the one who decides to keep everything for after the volcano has cooled off. 

As a kid if I did something wrong or misbehaved, my dad would just stare at me or not talk to me. No noise. I know how that killed me inside. I’d rather have him scold and yell or even bring the roof top down, than not say a single word.
Silence is one the greatest arts of conversation. Silence is much louder than loud. Silence reverberates. That, my friend, is the power of silence.   

 








  

6 comments:

  1. Dear Madhu,

    Good reflection.

    I am reminded of one of the best and moving song by

    SIMON and GARFUNKEL – THE SOUND OF SILENCE.

    You can hear it Youtube.

    Hello darkness, my old friend,
    I've come to talk with you again,
    Because a vision softly creeping,
    Left its seeds while I was sleeping,
    And the vision that was planted in my brain
    Still remains
    Within the sound of silence.

    In restless dreams I walk alone
    Narrow streets of cobblestone,
    'Neath the halo of a street lamp,
    I turned my collar to the cold and damp
    When my eyes were stabbed by the flash of a neon light
    That split the night
    And touched the sound of silence.

    And in the naked light I saw
    Ten thousand people, maybe more.
    People talking without speaking,
    People hearing without listening,
    People writing songs that voices never share
    And no one dared
    Disturb the sound of silence.

    "Fools" said I,"You do not know
    Silence like a cancer grows.
    Hear my words that I might teach you,
    Take my arms that I might reach you."
    But my words like silent raindrops fell,
    And echoed
    In the wells of silence

    And the people bowed and prayed
    To the neon god they made.
    And the sign flashed out its warning,
    In the words that it was forming.
    And the signs said, 'The words of the prophets are written on the subway walls
    And tenement halls.
    And whisper'd in the sounds of silence.

    Best regards,
    N.G. KRISHNAN

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  2. Thanks kicha chitta. :)

    One of my friends who read this, said the exact same thing. He told me to listen to the same song you've suggested. Its beautiful. Melodious !!!

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  3. Interesting observation - rather good learning.Silence is a very underused power. People remain silent for many reasons; I am sure you have heard the most famous quote on silence - "Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt - Abraham Lincoln. Keep writing, I enjoy reading what goes in your mind.

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  4. Lovely explanation of the oxymoron. ...'Deafening Silence'

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  5. Very nicely written Jyotsna :-)

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