Pappu can't speak saalaa!

From at the stroke of midnight when the whole world slept, to at the stroke of modern day primetime news when the whole world listened, a great grandfather and a great grandson duo proved that the art of speaking cannot be inherited.

A good public speaker can be made but an exponent of good extempore speaking is always born, and that skill unfortunately cannot be inherited or be passed on.

Public speaking today has taken a whole new turn, when I was a kid I was taught to get on stage and speak my mind, emphasise on the words, express myself and be loud and clear where I ought to be. Today there are public speaking classes and clubs that drive in the fundamentals of speaking to the young minds. In my opinion they are becoming a tad too formal. With timed pauses, grammatical error counters, the movements being measured and the vocal chords being strained to achieve the desired modulation level of voices. The worst is when the accents are being monitored closely so much so a Malayalee trying to express a SIMBLE concept is brushed aside, as is the Bengali who has a brilliant OIDEA or a Tamilian Physicist who wants to find out waaaaat is behind the Maaaatter all because they did not sound like the perfect Englishman.

But here we are, listening to the Oxford and Cambridge educated ones with perfect English accents delivering hollow speeches with a pause too long, not for the poetic effect but for the want of substance to speak. Any person can be a public speaker in my opinion if he or she knows and believes in what the he or the she wants to convey.

Handling questions from a seasoned TRP hungry press journalist spontaneously is an art that is a forte of a few these days. It’s an asset when it comes to a politician. Since a momentarily slipped tongue or a tied one can make or break a politician’s career in this media hungry society. It seems to be a lost art. A political discourse is good for democracy and the nation; however these days more than a discourse what we see are monologues by the journalist who put words into the mouths of the less seasoned politicians and thereby deriving the sadistic pleasure of achieving TRP ratings. Gone are the days when a politician used to hold his ground and will be all of verbose.

The latest display by the scion of the India’s political first family was far from impressive and abysmal compared to his ancestors particularly his grandmother whose Bhaiyoon aur Behanon start to her speeches still reverberate in my ears, mind you, that was quite a lot of summers back. She knew how to deliver good speeches and could easily hold her ground at questions thrown at her from acclaimed journalist from around the world representing the likes of Newsweek and the Time.

For a politician to be successful in a democracy he needs to possess these skills where under the pretext of freedom of speech will be confronted with questions that are both rude, blatant and pretty personal and most of them could be below the belt too and the way he handles those will go a long way in shaping a leader.

But that is only the talk part, and that’s not enough in governing the largest democracy in the world the more arduous one is the walking part too in which many fail. So let’s hope the next general elections gives us a leader who can talk well and also walk the talk taking this great nation along the path to prosperity.