It took one month and half to properly form ideas regarding this blog. The much needed noiseless environment was missing all these days. The blog partly was inspired by the home visit I had a few weeks back. I felt that the Indian socio-cultural ambience is filled with noise. I became acutely aware of this because of the two year stay in Oman a country which is relatively calmer and less noisy. No blaring horns, No crowded spaces, people too are slow and relaxed, no pressure on them to invade a space as there is no public transport system. It is strange that here people don’t use the horns while driving. The only time that Ihave heard them honking the horn is when they celebrate the marriage of their friends. It is a lovely sight to see the cars lined up one after the another moving in a sort of procession towards the bride’s home, kind of announcing their arrival through blaring horns and sometimes even shouting. The same applies to the celebration in case of a football event. World Cup football was one such event. The fact that most Omani’s wear a white dish-dasha brings in a feeling of peace and harmony. Most of them even prefer to drive white painted cars. It is a rare sight to see a colour other than white. I feel the culture has some influence on the noise level. I am defining culture through demographic, social and personal markers.
At this juncture I would like to comment upon the noise that is sometimes created in our innerscape – The Mind. Most of time these noise effects clear thinking and logical behaviour. I have seen people who are disturbed from within and most of the time they are so engrossed with the inner voice that they don’t mind the outer world with its tumultuous sounds.
It is even debated whether man or woman make more noise. In my experience the credit for this should go to woman. I am not biased and my statement is purely based on real-life experience both in the family and the workplace. I have experienced the non-stop chatter of my female friends and colleagues much to the annoyance of myself and my male-colleagues. most of the this leads to exchange of heavy words in the form of opinions and comments.
Being a teacher for the past 10 years, I can say that it is teacher’s dream to handle a class where his students are quite attentive and less distracted. Real learning happens in such a situation. The one to one correspondence between the student and teacher is always possible when there is an ambiance of silence. Silence also brings in the scope for listening not just to what others are saying but even to our innermost thoughts and
