Come aboard, If your destination is oblivion

 ‘Come aboard, if your destination is oblivion - it should be our next stop.’

That's a fine sentence from the book Life of Pi by Yann Martel.  This is how Pi Patel invites Orange Juice, the orangutan to his boat.

  

  I thought hard about this - Why did I like this line so much? As usual I have come up with a theory - as always a bizarre one, something even the hyena in Life of Pi would find hard to digest.

  First of all, it has a lot to do with my mood, for I didn't notice such a beautiful sentence when I read Life of Pi for the first time. And for that reason no one else can derive as much happiness as I did on reading that sentence, never. May be there is someone out there who can extract much more happiness out of that sentence than me, but not the exact amount of happiness if happiness could be measured with two decimal places.

  Don’t go away; the bizarre part of theory is not yet over, because the sentence works at another level- with word association and context of the story. For the context, the situation is bleak with Pi losing hope over being lost in the Pacific Ocean. He has a tiger, a heinous hyena and a crippled Zebra for company. He has almost lost all his hope, that' when Orange juice, the orangutan floats up on a pile of banana.

  Do you see the connection between oblivion, horizon and hope? You wouldn't, because I made that up.Horizon rhymes with oblivion, and it also rhymes with hope.

  To Yann Martel's credit, he has used one word to evoke three different images; hope, horizon and mental blankness. Was it his true intention? Or a piece of genius, we will never know, nevertheless he chose the perfect word. For Pi, the statement is an absolute truth; there is no hope of a horizon, only blankness and fear of being forgotten by the world. 

The result is a sublime multi-layered sentence, the context of the story makes it all the more better.

 ‘Come aboard, if your destination is oblivion - it should be our next stop.’

 Sounds weird and unbelievable?  Try giving me a better story, I will gladly accept. After all we believe in miracles not because it is true, but because that is the better story. At desperate times, even despair is romanticized. Aren't we always a foot away from imaginary despairs?

  

Made to stick - Review

  Not many books make you think, “Made to stick” made me think. It is as if the ideas in the book were pre dipped in super glue. As I read, they seamlessly attached themselves to my mind. The book is all about exploring the super glue that can stick our ideas in the fast moving world.

 Chip Heath and Dan Heath have put together a series of ideas to make your ideas stick. Of course this is not a get rich quickly, or success by thinking positive kind of book.

 What are the reasons behind good recall value of urban legends?  Can the reasons be used in real time to solve communication problems? According to the authors there are six things that constitute an idea that will stick. For instance all the urban legends would have at least satisfied four out of six components. Therefore the argument is, these components if used well can improve our communication.

For the authors, a sticky idea is that has at least few of the components from their formula of SUCCESS.

  S- Simple

  U-Unexpected

  C- Concrete

  C- Credible

  E- Emotional

  S-Stories

None of the components of their formula are new, and yet it needs a well written reminder to wake us out of abstract conversations. When a concept is abstract, it goes over our head.

A lot of parallel can be drawn to the “Competent Communicator” manual of Toastmasters International. Though they have never explicitly mentioned about the components to make ideas stick, the references are undeniable.

 For example, every Toastmasters Project encourages Simple themes and sentence constructions than roundabout and lengthy constructions. Surprise (Unexpected) is a component used to catch the attention of the audience, especially in the introduction of a speech. The term ‘vivid imagery’ is frequently used  which is equivalent to the Concrete word usage recommended by the book. Including Stories in your speech, especially stories with strong Emotion is one of the frequent evaluation points I received for my projects. I just did not know how to use them?

For me to use them, I had to know some well executed examples. I had to understand the patterns of ideas that are still making waves. I had to learn specific ways to include the components of SUCCESS in my life. The ideas had to be reiterated without boring anyone. All that is what “Made to stick” does. The book drives home the importance of each component of their SUCCESS formula by using the same formula to explain each component. Filled with fascinating researches, and deep insights, it is entertaining apart from the value add, just like a good Toastmasters speech.

So why read “Made to stick” if you already have the CC Manual from Toastmasters International? Because, this book is about creating simple concrete credible emotional stories with unexpected twist. Don’t you want to create such stories?

Here is the link to a mindmap of this book if you aren't patient enough to read the entire book. But this mind map is just an ordinary glue, you ought to read the entire book to know what is super glue. 

 http://drbakker.nl/made-to-stick-summary-mindmap/

Anguished English- Time to wear dirty clothes

  One of the funniest books I’ve ever read. Rightly subtitled ‘An anthology of accidental assaults upon our language ’, Anguished English is Richard Lederer’s collection of anecdotes and one liners from various facets of life. Wear old clothes while you read this book or even the excerpts in this article, you might dirty yourself rolling on the ground.

 Few of my favorites quips from Anguished English. They say, trying to dissect a joke is like dissecting a frog. It smells and the frog would probably be dead. So, I’m not attempting a dissection, but a commentary (in blue) to some delightful imagination.

Student bloopers from Anguished English:

 The below bloopers were performed by students with a different perspective on the World history. Just that they were blessed with an overworking imagination.

 The pyramids are a range of mountains between France and Spain. The Egyptians built the pyramids in the shape of a huge triangular cube. – Obviously the students thought that the Egyptians could build mountains by watering huge triangular cubes. I think the triangular cubes are one of the extinct shapes like the extinct bird dodo.

It was an age of great inventions and discoveries. Gutenberg invented the Bible. Another important invention was the circulation of blood. Sir Walter Raleigh is a historical figure because he invented cigarettes and started smoking. And Sir Francis Drake circumcised the world with a 100-foot clipper. - I always wanted to know the author of the bible. I wonder what circulated in the veins before the invention of circulation of blood. And Sir Francis Drake’s feat is definitely unique – an expert circumcision.

 Gravity was invented by Isaac Walton. It is chiefly noticeable in the autumn, when the apples are falling off the trees.-  Probably why there are no apples in South India, too much of gravity too early.

Bach was the most famous composer in the world, and so was Handel. Handel was half German, half Italian, and half English. He was very large. Johann Bach wrote a great many musical compositions and had a large number of children. In between, he practiced on an old spinster which he kept up in his attic. Bach died from 1750 to the present.- Did the musical composition create large number of children. He might have risen out of his grave to search the student who wrote this.

Beethoven wrote music even though he was deaf. He was so deaf he wrote loud music. He took long walks in the forest even when everyone was calling for him. Beethoven expired in 1827 and later died for this.-   Just another way to express death of great person.

The sun never set on the British Empire because the British Empire is in the East and the sun sets in the West. Queen Victoria was the longest queen. She sat on a thorn for 63 years. She was a moral woman who practiced virtue. Her reclining years and finally the end of her life were exemplatory of a great personality. Her death was the final event which ended her reign. – Such a genius. A genius is 99% imagination and 1% tomfoolery.

Thomas Jefferson, a Virgin, and Benjamin Franklin were two singers of the Declaration of Independence. Franklin had gone to Boston carrying all his clothes in his pocket and a loaf of bread under each arm. He invented electricity by rubbing two cats backwards and declared, "A horse divided against itself cannot stand." Franklin died in 1790 and is still dead. – How did B.Franlkin ride a horse with loaves of bread beneath his arms? He must have been in a tight spot. Did he eat them?  We have lots of cats in Tamilnadu, why can’t somebody rub cats backward and generate electricity. Apart from electricity, that would generate jobs too. Thank God Franklin is still dead.

 How I wish someone would publish the Indian assault on English language.  That will be revenge for the pathetic display of Indian cricket team against the visiting England team. What would they title it, Inflamed English?

Any contribution towards the revenge is welcome. This is your chance to take that revenge against English.