Listening

We do listen....
And so do animals (whatever the technicality involved... snakes without ears... bats , use the radar..etc)...

What irritated me was....
these animals 'listen' even while asleep!... (Dog for instance... it almost makes us believe that there is no 'such-thing' as a sound-sleep for these guys!)... But, can't be true... they don't have that 'hangover' of a disturbed sleep... Bah! Forget it, that they sleep even standing..(some of them... ) there are ones who sleep-hanging! Its 'listening' that I was trying to look at...

Oh yes...
we ended up complicated that listening a little, when we decided to make-sounds-that others need to listen-compulsorily ( a court's “hearing” ... of a case... the “Your Honour” there won't listen to non-advocates primarily.... :-) he listen's better to case laws! Copy-paste Bij-ness in full swing... where as, quoting law, its concepts, preamble.. is an 'herculian-task' )

All of a sudden the voice at the other end of the phone 'seems to get mixed up with heavy wind' (guzzz guzzzzzz).. But, it could be just that the other person got all his teeth removed just-now (recently), and is waiting for the artificial ones (dentures... or whatever!)... We listen more to 'gush' of air, 'swooosh' than the words spoken.
Even shift of accents make that listening quite a task! (“Western” accent makes a pass mark in TOEFL... so tough! Listen to the noise they make and struggle for a 'cohesive' reply that fetches good-marks!)

I tried to look at it a little deeper (that bizness of listening)...

For the sake of my-own understanding, I tried to classify it thus:

1. Listening: Mind engaged in own-chat (the other keeps blabbering... his very-first sentence took my mind away, into an incessant-chat, with myself... and I lost the rest of it... I didn't actually disturb him... I , perhaps, left him quite-disturbed, by not listening at-all, any further!)

2. Listening: Mind listens while chatting : (the chatter of my mind is almost lost into own-stuff, and certain 'key' words, draws my attention... not any better, really)

3. Listening: Mind chats while listening: ( the attempt is to focus on listening, {for some sacred-reason}... but mind races along, to fish-out something related to what is heard... too-keen to 'make-sure' it is understood in-good-time!)

4. Listening: Well... just that listening... plain-listening... as innocently as a recording device! (Now it can be played back, and 'heard' well at one's leisure... but depends, on other factors!)

Some of the 'dialogues' I heard when a tiny-kid... made sense, only when I recalled it as a 'grown' up... for instance, in the colloquial language, the very expression “grown-up”... when it is about a girl attaining puberty, has a 'contextual-sense'... where as a kid 'at times' is said-to-blabber like 'grown-ups' :-))

It is perhaps, that 'listening'... and its classifications (concocted by me)... that led to deepening of certain perceptional-dimensions within me... leading to even 'listening' to the texture-of-thoughts of the other (guess-works turn correct, too-often... what else can be a 'credible-evidence'?)...

It is entirely another matter, altogether... that people claim to 'listen' to even unspoken things... listen to 'silence'... and poets claim even bizzare things like “Kuch Kehta Hai Yeh Sawan” - Asha Parekh - Dharmendra - Mera Gaon Mera Desh Songs - Lata – Rafi”.... link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oK3E-YXEIXE

And now, I wonder... when it is merely-about reading a stuff... why at all does that listening get interrupted?... Oops... mind-games! (animals don't mind it ...!)

Patiently yours,
psn(7th August, 2016)