Spice of life | In symphony of life, hit right note, strike a chord

When we’re teenagers, we imbibe certain truths without any effort. It’s much later that we realise the import of what we learnt and how that changes the way we look at life.

In my younger days, I was fond of listening to ghazals by Jagjit Singh. One of his soul-stirring renditions, ‘Baat niklegi to phir door talak jayegi (If a word escapes the mouth, it will travel a long distance),” penned by Kafeel Aazar, held a special place in my heart. Little did I know at the time that it carried profound wisdom about the impactful nature of words, both said and unsaid, in the realm of communication. Only much later did I realise that the opening line of Aazar’s nazm (poem) encapsulates wisdom that communication theorists have needed book-length studies to convey.

Fast forward to adulthood, and I found myself in front of a classroom, trying to teach theories and basics of business communication to a group of bright students. As I started to unravel the principles of communication in organisations, I could not help but recall Jagjit Singh’s haunting melody. It dawned on me that the essence of this beautiful verse resonated with one of the fundamental principles of business communication: You cannot not communicate.

A parallel emerged between the nazm and the core of this principle. The nazm, which originally spoke of the fragility of human relationships, took on a new meaning. The principle essentially states that every behaviour, whether spoken words or silence, body language, or even the absence of communication, conveys a message.

In an organisational context, everything we do or don’t do sends signals to our colleagues, superiors, subordinates and other stakeholders. Much like the nazm’s premise that words once spoken create a ripple effect that could travel a distance impossible to imagine, an unbridgeable chasm that the words spoken sometimes unwittingly can posit between two individuals. Similarly, communication within an organisation has far-reaching consequences.

The students, expecting a dry lecture, were taken aback, but they were also intrigued.

I continued just as the words in the nazm had impacted me irreversibly, the words and actions within an organisation or in a system (group of people) have consequences that are impossible to erase. Communication, I explained, isn’t just about what we say but also about what we don’t, and the messages we unintentionally convey. The classroom came alive with understanding and laughter. They began to appreciate the idea that managing communication in an organisation is as crucial as hitting the right notes in a song.

My teenage revelation had served as a bridge between the world of music and that of business communication. In teaching, it’s true you cannot not communicate, whether you are delivering a lecture or sharing a heartfelt memory. So, here’s a nod to the unexpected sources of inspiration and the amusing avenues where life’s melodies intersect, guiding us through the insightful journey of knowledge — be it through ghazals or textbooks.

After all, in the symphony of life, sometimes the most unexpected tunes strike the most resonant chords. We never know that as we hum our favourite songs, there might be profound, far-reaching lessons for life hidden in the lyrics, like the contention of Aazar’s nazm “Baat niklegi to phir….’ dhiraj.pbiuniv@gmail.com

The writer teaches business studies at Punjabi University, Patiala