Whenever Someone asks the Question – What’s Communication? I am instantly reminded of the famous story from the Mahabharatha. During the battle of Kurukhshetra, when the Pandavas were not able to get past Dronacharya, the chief of the Kaurava army, krishna came up with a plan. He said, lets give Dronacharya the false news of the death of his son, Ashwathama. Krishna knew that his son would be powerful enough to distract Drona’s attention and gain an opportunity to defeat him. Next day, when the battle was in full swing, as per the plan, Bhima killed an elephant named Ashwathama and arranged for the news of Ashwathama’s death to reach Dronacharya. Dronacharya was a clever man, conversant in all the ways of the war. When he came to know of the death, he said that he wouldn’t believe a word unless someone as truthful as Yudhisthir would confirm it. Yudhisthir, who was known to speak only the truth, came up and said, ‘Ashwathama killed; but not the man, the elephant. However the moment Yudhisthir had finished saying ‘Ashwathama killed’, Krishna blew a conch-shell and other pandava warriors joined him in creating a commotion, causing the latter part of the sentence to be drowned in the noise. Thus, Dronacharya could only get to hear ‘Ashwathama killed’! Now that’s what I call Communication! What you say is important, but what is more important is:
- How it’s presented
- What gets received
- How it’s interpreted
Further, communication can take place through countless number of channels and for an infinite number of reasons. Thus communication could be a casual chat between two friends; but communication could also refer to some document as important as the Constitution of the country. It is not possible to cover the entire spectrum of communication modes in a slim volume. Nor is the necessary. Our focus in the blog will be on Inter-personal Formal Communication, both written and verbal.
