Tête-à-Tête
Intelligent Conversation- Something that is very close to my heart; something if you are only able to have once in the entire year you can consider yourself lucky, very lucky; something that is as rare as hen's teeth. You know why? Because the art of conversation is lost, because we don't converse anymore- we are too bloody busy to have a chat.
But, if I were to have an intelligent conversation, I would have all the ingredients ready at hand only to realize that I don't have the oven. Okay agreed, very bad metaphor-- but I mean the 'conversationalist', your partner in crime, your adversary, your best friend and your worst enemy all at once.
These days I only dare to bask in conversational glory through books that use the literary means of irony, sarcasm, hyperbole, rhetorical questions, jocularity and double entendre. It is best achieved with the intelligent reactions of the listener. It is fun, invigorating and discursive. It is what keeps human beings alive, it is the mainspring of ideas and inventions. Nothing gives more of an adrenaline rush than a good piece of conversation.
When your jokes go over people's heads, when someone tries to answer your rhetorical questions, when a gloomy silence succeeds an ironic remark- how discouraged do you feel? Discouraged enough to play dumb for the rest of the evening? Discouraged enough to not waste your quick retorts in that crowd? Discouraged enough to write obscure lines on your Facebook status? You are not alone!
Well, it is during these times that I miss my cultural milieu, where one can say something without fear of being disagreed with, we embrace disagreements, debates and political incorrectness. We don't dumb down, we don't run away, we don't numb ourselves with diplomacy; we converse in the true sense of the word!
My friends (you know who you are), over the years our conversations have inspired, exhilarated, infuriated and enlivened me. Take this post as my testament of how much you are missed, loved and treasured!
But, if I were to have an intelligent conversation, I would have all the ingredients ready at hand only to realize that I don't have the oven. Okay agreed, very bad metaphor-- but I mean the 'conversationalist', your partner in crime, your adversary, your best friend and your worst enemy all at once.
These days I only dare to bask in conversational glory through books that use the literary means of irony, sarcasm, hyperbole, rhetorical questions, jocularity and double entendre. It is best achieved with the intelligent reactions of the listener. It is fun, invigorating and discursive. It is what keeps human beings alive, it is the mainspring of ideas and inventions. Nothing gives more of an adrenaline rush than a good piece of conversation.
When your jokes go over people's heads, when someone tries to answer your rhetorical questions, when a gloomy silence succeeds an ironic remark- how discouraged do you feel? Discouraged enough to play dumb for the rest of the evening? Discouraged enough to not waste your quick retorts in that crowd? Discouraged enough to write obscure lines on your Facebook status? You are not alone!
Well, it is during these times that I miss my cultural milieu, where one can say something without fear of being disagreed with, we embrace disagreements, debates and political incorrectness. We don't dumb down, we don't run away, we don't numb ourselves with diplomacy; we converse in the true sense of the word!
My friends (you know who you are), over the years our conversations have inspired, exhilarated, infuriated and enlivened me. Take this post as my testament of how much you are missed, loved and treasured!
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