Smooth Operator

Being the introvert I am, from time immemorial, ever since I was young, I remember my mother trying her level best to instil into me the importance of expressing oneself to gain confidence of others and exerting influence over others! Probably she was trying too hard to turn her son into the mould of her prodigy brother. Growing in the Asiatic environment who believes that children should be seen and not heard, it is hard for a child to exhibit his inner feelings.

In that way, children exposed to the Western brand of education are at an advantageous stature to their liking. But there is only so much and so long you can blame your parents and fore-fathers for this handicap. After a certain age, you are on your own...

Master Prabakaran: wonder

if his path followed the same

of many child actors? 

I remember watching a Tamil movie with my sisters where a young preteen precocious orphan who is seen running around the streets in the vicinity of some Hindu temples in Tamil Nadu whilst acting as a tourist guide and putting the adults to shame with his divinely gift of gab and knowledge of the temple ruins (yeah, right!). When we returned after the show, Amma was singing praises about the child star and urged us to be like him at least from the vocal aspect - talking with a clear and crisp voice. Take a listen at it and see for yourself how irritatingly stereotyped the boy is made to be! http://www.rajshritamil.com/Video/Vaa-Raja-Vaa When a Indian Muslim relative once asked my name, I told him so. Being a man probably hard of hearing, he thought that it was 'Hassan Ghani' when it should have been 'Asokan'. Back home it was barrage of missiles for me for mumbling!

If you listened to the podcast above, you heard the interview with Time dot com CEO Afsal Abdul Rahim. As people familiar with the turn of events in the business world are aware, he was roped in to turn the ailing company into red territory. Listening to the way he speaks, with the gift of the gab and all, one can be forgiven to think that he is the saving Messiah for the job! Whether it will materialise or otherwise is yet to be seen.

I do not think my mother's training managed to overturn me into a smooth talking maverick, far from it! During the time of my training for the British professional examinations, my boss tried his level best to make me a capable candidate with a reasonable ability to vocalise my expressions in a sensible and convincing way to convince the English examiners that I was worthy to be a member of their 'boys' club!  
As part of the training, twice a week, I had to present a half an hour presentation on the most mundane topics just to get me into the craft (probably in an artful form, wishful thinking does not hurt) to my peers and subordinates. He even managed to convince (con) me into singing at a karaoke session at a Rotary dinner, all in the name of training with him having a good chuckle in the background. I have come to think that it was done in good faith. Hence, no hard feelings. He still calls me every now and then.