Seasons

A montage of the cherry tree outside my window... Started photographing during winter, through spring, summer and autumn..

Do you like your own voice?

Yes, did you ever listen to yourself speak? I bet you always do. But do you like what you hear? Sure enough, you do!

Now, do you think what you hear about your own voice is what the others hear too? Well, this question amazed me while I was on a call for over 2 hours with one of my clients. So, I switched on the voice recorder on my phone and let it record my voice for the remainder of my call. Later, I played back my recording to listen to my own voice... I was surprised! I realized that this was the voice that was heard on the other end of the line during my call... and I was happy about it.. =)

So, this is what I found. The voice I hear when I listen to myself speak is very different from the voice I hear played back from the recorder. There is an explanation to this - something on the lines of external and internal stimuli, where the person listening to you hears only the external stimulus of your voice, while you hear both internal and external stimuli of your voice. It was an amazing discovery and I involuntarily got to analyze my speech making mental notes about altering it for a better perception from the listener.

Curious, I checked if there were any singers who disliked their own voices, and found some pretty interesting information. Voices we perceive as beautiful or pleasant, may not necessarily be perceived the same way by the person voicing it. .  Hmm.. I guess this thought has helped produce some beautiful music...

eh! I'll get back to my business.
Nevertheless, try it.. See if you love your voice or hate it. !

Cheers..

A beautiful alliance

How often have you walked up to a stranger and said “Hi…” ? How often do you think you have maintained that smile on your face instinctively when speaking to some one you never knew? Do you put your ego and inhibitions above camaraderie? ….
It’s been a year since I switched from the aged Company busses to the mostly frantically driven Company cabs, and nothing exciting seemed to have happened since then, except for the fact that cabs were more comfortable and dropped me home faster than the busses. But the comfy part soon faded when more and more of our breed were stuffed into less and less reliable cabs. Nevertheless, more members in the cab meant less room for complacency and more room for conversations . And if company meant a good looking lady, then the journey couldn’t have been more enjoyable.. ;).
It was on one such occasion when I had the privilege of being in the early morning shift for my project (privilege because I get to go home by 4 in the evening Everyday) and one of those rare honours of having a graceful lady being picked up by the same cab as mine, that I managed to add up a “H” and an “i” into a beautiful alliance. I will refer to this smart and interesting lady as Cherry.
Getting back home one evening at 4 in a jam packed cab with Cherry beside me, I mustered the courage and said “Hi…” with a smile, hoping to be returned the greeting without being jeered at by her.
Cherry : “Hi..” (smiling )
Me : So..where are you from, Cherry?
Cherry : I’m from Banre, but was educated partly in Coimtore… Where are you from?
Me : I’m from Banre too…. Pretty jam packed cab, eh?
Cherry : Yeah ( making a frustrated face .. looking cute :) )
Me : Blah blah…
Cherry : Blah Blah…
And so went the conversation on and on till the time came for her to alight at J Street. After exchanging our Goodbyes, I got thinking about this encounter. What did it take for me to be know her? Just a smile and a Hi… and the will to put myself before my ego and extend my greeting with an intention to break the reticence so common in most of us. I am grateful that I took this step and 4 months since, we have discovered most of our interests, some of them common, lunched together, watched movies together and now share a great friendship.
There are more instances. This approach helped me make new friends with a gentleman from the Navy( trust me, he was in my Organization for some time ); a guy who is ready to trade his job for higher studies; another dude whose passion is to travel and gather info about supercars; a person from the clientele who happens to share my hometown and prefers Indian Ghazals over Metallica and Deep Purple, among others. The point is, I did what I believed will help me break the ice..and I suggest we do it once a while when we meet people and do it when the time is right, like when you travel or get off the bus early in the morning, or when you come out for lunch in office, for it is at these times that all of us are relaxed and relieved of work for a little while and are open to something outside the box. What’s more, you could discover that you were sitting on the Pandora’s box of joy, waiting to be unleashed all this while..
Cheers!!