The Power of Words--Javed Akhtar

  Friends, this topic -- the power of words -- is an interesting one and that‘s very close to my heart.
  It's strange how we often overlook things that are so close to us, near us.How many people question, "Why is air transparent?" Or, "Why is water wet?" How many think about what is it that has passed? Time has passed, What came? What went away? How many of us wonder? Similarly the words that we speak and hear all day, how many times have we really thought, "What exactly are these words?"
Words are a strange thing.You once saw an animal and decided it's a "cat." But "cat" is a sound. This "cat" has nothing to do with animal. But I have decided it's a "cat." So a cat it is. So I gave the sound the identify of this animal. After what I made a semicircle, a pyramid, cut into half, then a straight line, then another below it, and wrote "cat." In these criss-crossed lines, I fill a sound and into that sound, a meaning.
  Now like with this cat, even with love, anger, a thought, an idea, pain, suffering, happiness, surprise, everything has been linked with a sound. And then sounds were fit into some criss-crossed lines that we call a script. So three things that had nothing in common were joined by us to create a word. A sound that is actually gibberish has beeb add onto it. And the lines, crooked lines, they formed a word.Incredible! And I have come to believe that with time, these words have become like human beings. A man is known by the company he keeps.Similarly, with word, what is the company it has been keeping? What ate the other word being used with it? For an average noun or an average verb, an average mind can quickly create reference. Where did they hear it? See it? What does it remind them off? What is it connection? When was it last used in conversation? What has been my experience with it? A host of memories appear when you hear a word you member.And a good writer or Orator is one who knows that when he user a certain word, an average mind will associate it with a certain reference, specific memories will be invoked. Then he can create a world around a word.
  What is the power of a word? Be it a mother's lullaby a politician's speech, love letters from your beloved, or a complaint against someone, a protect call... anger, sadness, happiness, surprise, belonging, alienation, anything int the world, any feeling in the world, it will not have any meaning for you , forget getting across to anyone else.
  Words are not thoughts, just like bricks are not homes, But houses are made with bricks. If you have less bricks, you will make a small house. The more words you have, the clearer your thoughts, and the more clearly you can convey them. Nowadays I often hear, especially from young ones, "You know What I mean?" No, I don't know what you mean. "You know what I mean?" is running out of words. Everything is now moving fast so communication has to be fast as well. But the tragedy is that we have attained this speed at the cost of depth of words. We want to speak faster, so the language is also faster, hence communication is faster,But this speed has affected depth, which means that forget about other people, just look at yourself. You are not being able to articulate your own feelings, thoughts, or emotions in the detail manager. Or, Clearly and these words, as long as words exist, they aren't here just for a meaning. They are also a conveyer belt of language, words.They reflect your culture, your traditions, you inheritance, your cultural weath accumulated over generation, all of that is carried forward with words.If you cut a man off from some words, you cut him off from a cultrue, a history. This is exactly what is happening with us today.
  So language is very powerful thing.Words are extremely powerful. But by themselves, they are neither good nor bad. If we start loving words and understand their power, we would realize that everything that happens in the world is because of words. Or there would be nothing between us and the rest of the creatures, the rest of animals, although we too are animal. The only difference is that we can pass on thought our words, our experience, our learning and our knowledge to the next generation. So we don't only live on instinct but our slowly accumulated experience and knowledge over generation is passed on to the next. Through what? Through words.And if we didn't have these words, our advantage is gradually over, other species would diminish over time. We advanced only because we have language. And if we didn't have that we wouldn't be there. We would be right where we started.
  So what does language mean? Words! So learn to respect words. Love them. Befriend them. Listen to them attentively. And speak attentively.
  Thank you!