Oxford dictionary defines the term 'Communication' as a way to convey or transmit an emotion or feeling to another. Man being a social animal, communication is in his very nature and something without which he cannot live or function in a society. Over the years it is only the means of communication that have changed and not its definition.
First, man started communicating using sign languages. As he evolved he went on to use complex words to communicate, both verbally and symbolically. Communication was revolutionised when the telephone was invented. From then on communication has evolved with leaps and bounds. With the invention of satellite, communication across the globe became accessible and with the development of the internet, communicating across the globe became a reality for almost every human on the planet. Today its not very uncommon for a person sitting at one corner of the world to talk to a person at the other corner as if he or she is sitting in the other room. I personally do it when I talk to my family or friends back in India.
Yet with considerable knowledge about technologies and being a human myself, I have always been told that I am really bad at communicating with others. They say communicating is an art and I am as knowledgeable of it as Bush was of Osama's hideout.
Be it family, friends, someone special or relatives, everyone at some point of time have complained about my communication or rather about the lack of it. I have had to face firings, disappointed friends, angry friends, a failed relationship and much more due to it. When I went home for vacations, I spent most of my time with friends and didn't contact any family friends or relatives. This didn't go down well with my parents. I also only spent time with a very few friends, thus angering the others whom I didn't even contact. Due to this, and I kid you not; I have a fatwa declared in my name by a friend for if and when I go back to India. Bet even Salman Rushdie would be proud of me!
What is really funny (or not) is that I know about all this but somehow I have not been able to overcome this problem. I have faced endless lectures from my friends, read articles about it and my parents have tried their best, but to no avail. There is no denying the fact that over the years I have massively improved on my flaw, but there is still a long way to go. Communicating is still hard-work for me and being a lazy-ass, I see quite a rocky road ahead. Wonder what I have in store for me....
