Succinctness

A couple of years back, one of my close friends started writing a blog.
I had been an avid reader of other people's blogs on the internet. But I subliminally thought it was something done by those who had a lack of
better things to do. (There are so many things in life that everybody
condemns but also patronizes isn't it ?)

However, when this friend of mine started blogging, my view of
bloggers changed abruptly. I realized it was something really worthwhile.
Further I saw that it was an easy way to develop and maintain good written
English skills. Blogs are fun and free.

So I started thinking about what to blog on. A wonderful idea hit me.
Why not write about communication itself ? Succintness in communication
is something everyone admires, except when it is so terse as to be rude.
As a keen reader of the great Hindu epics, one of the characters I admire
most is Hanuman - the hero of the latter half of the Ramayana. Among his many
strengths, Hanuman is portrayed as a person who doesn't waste words. His words
pack as much punch as his fists. When he returns to Kishkinta after finding Seeta's
wherabouts, Hanuman says to Rama "Found Seeta, the personification of chastity".
While this sentence may sound a little odd in syntax, it is a gem as far as brevity
is concerned. With his very first word, Hanuman conveys that Seeta's location is
known. In the second phrase, Hanuman confirms that Seeta is still loyal to, and
longing to be re-united with Rama. This one sentence is enough to put to the love of
life back into Rama's sorrowful heart.

A former President of the USA, Calvin Coolidge was well-known for his succintness.
So much so that his nickname was "Silent Cal". A story goes that a presumptuous
reporter sat next to the president at a dinner. She told Calvin, "Mr.President,
I made a bet that I could get you to speak more than two words to me tonight".
Calvin replied "You lost" and continued eating!

Recently I prepared a report for one of my senior co-workers. A month later,
I still hadn't heard from him, so I called him up and checked on its status.
He said, "You know what Sriman, the report has so many text paragraphs
that I couldn't bring myself to sit down and read it". This comment got me
thinking.Personally I myself feel very discomfited reading emails that are more two
paragraphs long. Would it be fair to expect others to do what I loathe ?
Since then I've made a conscious attempt at brevity. (My blogs are exempted ;-)

Invariably you'll find that a verbose person also has trouble getting to the crux
of problems quickly.
Coming to think of it, conciseness is not just easier on the reader/listener - it
is also an unmistakable sign of mental clarity on part of the speaker/writer.