Filter Coffee # 214

On Yours, Virtually

Atlanta GA

FC 213 got some convincing comments:

• Tarun Kunzru says: “The word 'convince' has very interestingly been conceived—the first part is 'con' and the second part is 'vince'. So it has the inherent risk built in the word structure—one could well ‘vince’ with pain and feel conned when your conviction bubble is burst!”

• Karthik says: “It’s an extremely interesting topic and has a lot of relevance to the current era. Convincing has gained a new connotation thanks to social media. The adage ‘seeing is believing’ is no longer existent, and people are trying to convince each other by posting tons of videos and photographs on sharing platforms. Now, some influencers get paid millions of dollars just to convince their followers, who blindly accept anything posted…remember the pied piper! Be it religion, politics, sports or even movies, convincing others is the name of the game, so much so that we now have fact checks to prove the genuineness of the convincer. Probably the reason why CON is a part of the word convince!!”

📨 Yours, Virtually

In 2020, COVID hit all of us. My daughter and son persuaded me to start writing as I struggled to overcome the ennui of being confined to my home and avoid getting on my wife’s nerves. It may sound ironic that I wrote my first post in confinement on American Independence Day. Yes, FC 001 was posted on July 04, 2022. It is just a coincidence that I did that while on American soil. The past few editions of FC have also been posted from the US, and I suppose that will be the case for the next 4 editions. It is, in a sense, remote posting. I am looking forward to returning to Bangalore by mid-October.

‘Work from home’ and ‘remote working’ are the new jargon that has gained accreditation by both the staff and the establishment. The arrangement was a win-win for both. But not so for those engaged in essential services. Even today, I feel bad for those municipal workers who continued to work to keep our city clean, exposing themselves to the much-feared virus.

There is a school of thought that says that virtual meetings and virtual interactions tend to be inanimate, as they are devoid of feelings and less humane. This is a challenge for people who are in leadership positions and who rely on the team working remotely to deliver results. 

An HR friend once told me that remote working will not last forever. It is bound to revert to regular office working, though in stages. He, however, felt that virtual meetings may be a regular feature as they bring together people from different cities and disciplines. I tend to agree, as I have been attending virtual board meetings and continuing with them even after the pandemic.

I gather that lately, employers have been insisting on employees returning to the office, and to ensure that, they are counting the number of days in office as the basis for granting them leave. I heard that some employees take advantage of remote working to moonlight, i.e., work for others, hopefully not for competitors. There is also an apprehension that data secrecy and confidentiality may be compromised if remote working happens outside a secure network.

With the advent of artificial intelligence and the proliferation of scamsters, impersonation can be used to rob a person of not just money but also proprietary data. I gather that voice impersonation has often been the means to persuade someone to part with money.

Artists, authors and bloggers (such as me) work from home as a rule, but some prefer to use a ‘plug-n-play’ facility just to be among people who may well inspire them to think differently. I prefer to go to my office and work from there. It helps my wife as well, who wants me out of the way for a few hours.

Let me now digress a bit from remote working and virtual meetings and talk about communication among people, which has also become virtual. Facebook is the new medium to connect with kith and kin and share news and pictures. WhatsApp, text messaging, and email are the new communication tools. Thank you is taken over by 🙏, approval by 👍, appreciation by 👏, and many other emojis that capture an emotion.

Sometimes I feel people are being indulgent and feel that they should respond, so an emoji comes in handy. But if true emotions are involved, I would call the person or text him properly rather than take refuge in the symbolism of emojis. I am sure many, particularly the younger readers, may have a different point of view, and I respect that.

We have become virtual in all our interactions. In some ways, all of us are looking to say more but write less. Are we lazy, or have we been innovative in communicating? If we write a cryptic message, we ought to make sure that the intended recipient gets the message. That leads us to the next question: What are we communicating, and to whom are we communicating? Are we writing it out, recording it, or speaking over the phone? Are they all prone to being ineffective in some way or another?

Many prefer to chat for a long time and talk about many things, relevant or irrelevant. But they are unlikely to embark on writing a long letter, and if they did, it would be just the subject matter and nothing else. FaceTime, Zoom and other virtual media have enabled people to see each other and talk shop or gossip, depending on who is talking to whom.

Of late, I have become passive and prefer to let technology assist me in communication rather than make an effort to handwrite a letter. When one receives a handwritten letter, besides being treated as someone special, it connects that person emotionally and leaves an impression that lasts for a while. 

Handwritten letters, even in these days of digital communication, are a necessity if you are writing to someone who understands only the vernacular. My mother was not conversant with English, and my wife learnt to write to my mother in Kannada. We used to walk up to the post office to get postal stationery.  I haven’t been to a post office in a long time, and I rarely notice the existence of the mailbox at the street corner. I may well mistake it to be a fire hydrant. I feel quite ashamed.

When we lose touch with handwriting, we find ourselves not being able to write no more than a few lines before developing cramps. It happened to me. Both of my maternal uncles, even in their old age, could write with a firm hand. I am sure I will be struggling to affix my signature at their age.

There are some people that I know of who write a prayer 108 times in a notebook that they maintain for that purpose every day. I am thinking of doing that. I am also thinking of writing a letter and surprising a friend or a relative. It’s funny that I have to first get their postal address.

Handwritten letters are gripping if they are used to narrate an incident or describe a ceremony, or for that matter, just write to connect with that person. One may well cultivate the art of storytelling! I remember writing about traveling with my cousin and his father from Baroda to Mysore. It was like storytelling because of the incident that happened along the way. Without our knowledge, this uncle had gotten off at a station in the wee hours to have a cup of coffee. He was hard of hearing and did not hear the train leaving the platform. We discovered his absence, much to our horror. We even imagined that he may have fallen off the train. When we reached the next station, the station master was kind enough to send out an alert, and soon there was a message from that station that our uncle was safe and was being sent by the next train. Imagine writing all of this in a letter!

There is so much to be said about handwriting a letter or a document. We now have word processors, and we have forgotten the ability to process each word as it gets into a letter. Narrating happy tidings is far easier than writing about dismal tidings. Pen is mightier than sword, it is said. I say ‘pun is mightier than the word’. For example, when my friends say I should write a book, I tell them it is a novel idea. Here are some more puns about writing:

Q: Why did Stalin always write in lowercase?
A:  Because he hated capitalism.

Q: Why did Shakespeare only write in ink?
A: Pencils posed a problem, 2B or not 2B.

Q: What’s the difference between what lawyers and doctors write?
A: Nothing. Both are equally beyond me.

Dear readers, here’s some selfless advice. Please hand-write a letter to someone about my post. It helps me get more readers. See you next week, Ciao.