Thursday, October 05, 2006

RAMBLE

The other day someone gifted me a book with an autograph scrawled on the flyleaf, the first two initials capitalized with immense vigor and the t slashed with a flourish. Rather than an unending text in serif, this is an intelligent conversation that stops you short because it forces you to think. No, I haven’t read beyond the first page as yet.

People, episodes and ideas are elements of a good conversation, so the very first line reads, and rates ideas as the most intense. Conversations that center around inanities have a short half life, you say something and you’re done; or you say something and seek something else between the words, till one day you say nothing and you’re done. Ideas may or may not begin life all capitalized with inverted commas and neon lights. Nuances don’t exactly come to life with an announcement, but if the thread is to continue there is a dissection, a casual stroll around the bylanes, perchance intricacies- viewpoints examined, perhaps the conversation progresses to the next logical link.


But this is where I differ- for the exchange to move to ideas, first the groundwork has to be prepared, with events, people, and “what did you eat for dinner?” kind of small talk. This scaffolding needs to be put into place, a frame of reference built for words to mean what they indeed do.

7 comments:

Billy said...

I agree. Words need special places to have special meaning.

heretic said...

Aaaah, context is king. :-))

Anonymous said...

....and casual conversation? does one need a scafftag for that too?

austere said...

abbagirl- like a scale where you measure words for meaning, dont you think?

heretic- long time! true. the causal stuff is like shorthand or the alphabets of a language

cherie deah! when was a question merely a question? hidden within- whom did you eat with? how many times per morsel did you think of me.. likewise :)

e- yes, i believe so. AND you didnt ask me the name of the book- Talking Films- Nasreen Munni kabir in conv with Javed Akhtar- MUST read.

Anonymous said...

MUST :)Send us a copy :P!!

austere said...

e-hah.

Anonymous said...

Gah!...the other says 'Ain?' :))!!! Been through this before!