As visual encroaches upon the verbal

April 28, 2019

It can be about sharing, it can be about catharsis, and it can just be about the desire to be heard

As visual encroaches upon the verbal

Before the coming of recording, whether visual or aural, the ways to communicate were mostly through conversation or live performances.

In the evenings the well-to-do sat in their mardanas and just talked for want of anything better to do. The others gathered on landings outside the houses or on street corners and enlivened the thara with more commonplace talk, laced with banter and risqué asides -- mostly unabashed renderings. Women in the zananas gathered to talk of more immediate concerns -- the children, the mothers-in-law, clothes, the servants and other men and women.

Conversationalists were always in demand as they mixed reportage with drama, fact with fiction to carry a performance that held the attention of the circle around them. It was also a badge of civility and was prided as a social norm. In baithaks those who talked well were always welcomed for they regaled others with their flowery accounts.

But it was also a personalised exchange of ideas and emotions, the virtue being one-to-one contact, face-to-face meeting. But it was always among equals. The sons and daughters were not talked to but talked down to; even younger siblings were ordered around and not solicited for opinion. Not much breath was wasted on people outside class and caste.

Probably radio announced the death of conversation. But with the ubiquitous arrival of television, with everyone glued to the mini screen, not enough time for conversation was left, especially when the twenty-four hour transmission began to dominate the entire cycle of day and night.

In the beginning, radio and television both threw up topics for discussion -- the things that figured or did not figure became the themes to be talked about, particularly regarding politics and the news related to it. In societies like ours with a great degree of censorship the sanctioned news provoked the ire of the people who instead unleashed their own knowledge and understanding on the issue or person which could be true, or partly true or sheer gossip. But gossip did figure prominently in filling those hours and nights and it was pure indulgence.

Everything that you say or utter is not meant to be directed towards a higher purpose. Actually, very little is and it is found to be dull, what is titillating and full of involvement is small talk and gossip just around to fill the hours with vicarious pleasure -- it may be innocent or in more cases insidious and in most cases salacious. It may be the unburdening of sorts with the freedom to gossip, breaking down all the barriers to let in an air of liberty. Gossip is very restitutive as well as therapeutic; it can hoist the ego or demolish a reputation. In the immediate circle, conversation if gossipy is not ruled by any societal censorship. It is unbridled and, hence, recuperative.

The visual has kept encroaching upon the verbal and now with the digital media the main source of communication appears to be the image.

Can it be said that conversation was a means of killing time -- it was an attempt to avoid the black hole of loneliness and isolation -- it happened to be the erstwhile password for human contact.

Actually, what has upstaged conversation is the image. Till the coming of the camera the visual had to be brought to life through words. It was easier than to bring it to life with a performance or acting or music. Talking about it came naturally and did not involve the overt learning of a craft -- or it was not that obvious as it was in music and acting.

Also read: In the land of emojis 

Conversation can be about sharing, it can be about catharsis, and it can be just about the desire to be heard. It can be about a dialogue, an incremental building of ideas and thoughts or a justification of a certain attitude or act or decision. Words bolster resolve -- they provide the reason for having done so.

The visual has kept encroaching upon the verbal and now with the digital media the main source of communication appears to be the image. The transmission of the image involves less effort than writing, even talking. Just clicking the button requires less energy than even uttering a few coherent words.

If there is any conversation left it is more in an accusatory tone. It is not too engaged in a dialogue but to run down the other person. It is becoming declamatory and is taking the place of a sermon -- it lays down the rights and wrongs and pillories for not having slavishly followed them. It is not a conversation but the reading out of a proclaimed charge sheet and is in the end the hurtling of accusations. It does not draw a person out but closes him/her up for preparing a commeasurable self-defense.

As visual encroaches upon the verbal