SACH : Dr. Subhash Chandra Show

Thank you, thank you. Namaskar. In the last 15 seconds, when I stood before you, you received some communication from my side. Each one of you must have sized me up—'this guy looks okay' or maybe something else. What am I trying to say? The topic we are discussing today, communication, does not require words. The way I stood, my posture and appearance, you all formed opinions in your minds. Science, neuroscience says when we meet someone for the first time, it takes only seconds to create an opinion about them, and that opinion is not baseless. The vibrations between two people during communication, our mind picks up. Today I was told that you are management students, law students, and of course mass communication students. Before I go further, I want to ask you: what does communication mean to you? Because the subject today is 'Communication: The Skill That Runs the Whole World.' What is your own definition of communication?

Mr. Saxena said a good thing. Yes, speak.

Isn't it true that nowadays nobody wants to listen? When someone is speaking to you, your mind is more active. We keep thinking, 'How do I counter what this person is saying? How do I respond?' We just don't listen. Thank you very much.

Who are the communication students? Raise your hands. Okay, very good. And for the management students, what does communication mean?

They trust you by seeing your dress. That was an example—like the way I am presenting myself to him, that is what I am speaking. Not wrong. What you said earlier is not wrong.

Look, what is your name? Mohini. The way you were sitting—show us once how you were sitting. That was also communication. You were in a thinking posture, so I got a communication that Mohini is thinking too much or something else.

Communication for Mohini is a different means of learning. In other words, this is how you want to grow. Very good, very good. Yes.

Hmm. So, it has many definitions to it. Yes. But interesting thing is, according to a study, 68% of people in the world, when talking to someone, are not listening to understand the other person. They are only listening so that when the other person pauses to breathe, they can impose their own point. How many of you agree with this?

Oh my god. So you don't do that, right? When you know, yes you do. How to stop this? Tell me.

Very good. Good answer. This topic of communication is not new in this country. The saints, sages, and rishis of this country discussed it long ago. Kabir said in a doha - 'Speak such words, open yourself up. Cool others, and you yourself become cool.' Yes.

Communication, in my view, is a two-way thing. If you are only speaking, then it is not two-way; it is broadcast, not dialogue. Without dialogue, there is no communication. That dialogue can be through words or body posture. Eyes also communicate with each other. So when you talk, communicate, engage in dialogue, you want someone else to believe you, to trust you. One thing comes to mind: suppose you have a semester where you are giving an examination, and you haven't fully completed the first paper. Time is up. What will you do? How will you communicate with your examiner or professor?

Let's give this to Mohini.

Ok, good. Thank you, sir. Any other variation of this? Can you make the same communication much more effective, much more trustworthy? Because what they said made me think, 'This girl hasn't finished her work; she's just saying that to buy time.'

That's what they also said, with an emotional face.

Then that becomes emotional blackmail. But sir, to get work done, sometimes... (laughter) Sir, for me, in my situation, I will say, 'Sir, I am at my last question. Please allow me some time.' This is somewhat better. 'I have one last question left; give me 10 more minutes to do it.' Or you could say, if someone says, 'Sir, I have completed 90% of my work, 10% is left; I need 10 more minutes,' probably he will trust you much more. Because in communication, clarity is equally important. You just said 'please, give me some time,' but there was no clarity—whether you can do it in 5 minutes or 15. Or remember the movie 3 Idiots?

Since I myself am in the field of communication as a business, I get to understand how stories of entertainment should be created and told so that more people understand. Today, everyone has content, but there is no clarity in it. As we saw in the earlier example, we all have opinions, but there is a lack of understanding. Opinion versus understanding—that is a catchword, that is the difference in the field of communication. You must not only have your opinion, but also understand it. Only then will your words perhaps be heard. I mean, today someone formed the 'Cockroach Janata Party', but he has no understanding of the youth he is trying to bring along. He hasn't presented any proposition to them yet. Have any of you heard or seen that? Did any of you like or dislike it? No. And he says, 'Sir, I have 25 million followers now,' but there is no story. Proper skill is needed for communication. I have no hesitation in saying that I had many shortcomings; I considered myself not a good communicator.

If I start finding faults in everything you say, you will completely switch off. When friends fight, we often blame each other: 'It happened because of you,' 'You always do this.' If we learn to skillfully communicate, because when you say 'Because of you,' the other person becomes totally defensive and hostile. Their mind will only want to fight back because they want to defend themselves. But if you say, 'Look, I am feeling hurt for a while,' then the meaning of communication changes immediately. That's Kabir's doha: 'Cool others, you yourself become cool.' What is the problem? In today's social media age, you can abuse anyone, troll anyone. I have seen many youth feeling happy about it—'I did this to him.' It's a cool thing to do, isn't it? I have noted that Oxford University's recent research says that youth who spend more than 4 hours a day on social media and texting have a 40% increase in social anxiety in face-to-face conversations.

How many of you want to have 5,000 or 10,000 followers on Instagram? Those who raised hands—among those 500 or 1000 followers, God forbid if you are in trouble and need them, how many of those 1000 can you send a frank message: 'Please come here, I am in trouble'? You will find four or five.

That's why I said that liking, disliking, and making followers on social media is a completely different thing. I would say it is communication of your mood. If your mood is good, you like; if your mood is bad—maybe you had a fight with your boyfriend—you dislike. You can do anything.

You see, when we chat online, I believe it's just a data transfer, not communication. But when you sit face-to-face, imagine a friend in distress—failed an exam—you sit together, have tea, and as he drinks, a tear falls into the tea. The tea becomes salty. What is he communicating? A lot. Yes, you tell.

Look, applause. So only 0.01% happened. Are you a follower of?

Why not? Even if you are, it's not wrong.

Speak, speak. (Encouraging sound) Applause.

The things are very good. I am happy. This will definitely attract attention through reels, but it is not communication. Still, texting can only be taken as information. Sitting face-to-face, looking into each other's eyes, understanding that thing, communicating that thing—that is the real connection.

This is a truth, whether you accept it or not. In today's era, we consider many things cool, many things 'very nice' in your language. If something is wrong, what do you say? 'W'—only 'W'. Yes. What does 'W' mean? Right? This is a new communication that we must learn, and we are learning it, and I am enjoying it. Now I would like to call someone—my old friend and colleague, we have worked together. Welcome, Mr. KG Suresh.

What questions would you like to ask Professor KG Suresh?

And if I may add to that. In your communication, I talk about the five C's. Number one is clarity—how clear it is when you communicate something. We already talked about clarity, so that listeners immediately understand. Clarity is very important. And in what you are saying, is there any conflict? The human brain, as I said about data, and Suresh sir supported it, but our human brain is not wired to remember data. However, we do remember stories. From childhood, we heard stories from grandparents, learned from them. Today too we listen to stories. And stories certainly have conflict somewhere. In today's era, there is conflict everywhere. We saw a small thing earlier that led to conflict. Then credibility—what is the credibility in your talk? This is a very important subject because credibility comes from whether the facts you told are correct or not. The character of the story—does it affect me? Here you have 500 students. If I tell a story about space or spacecraft, it is not relevant to you because you are not science students. So the character of the story should match the audience you are communicating with. And ultimately, what are the consequences? Keep these five things in mind whenever you communicate on a serious subject.

Absolutely, you asked a very good question. But the country is changing. What you said earlier is our colonial mindset; we thought English is necessary for development. We saw countries like China developed without using English. Development and language are not related. But the impact of about 300 years of colonialism has affected us, leading to a certain class treating English as an elite language. We should take English as a skill, not a language. Emotions are attached to language—you dream in your mother tongue, not in English, no matter how fluent you are. Always remember that. I remember the time when I traveled by train; grandparents used to ask grandchildren to recite 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star' for uncles. Right? I remember that. But today, the same grandparents ask children to recite 'Rashmirathi' for uncles. What a big change! Isn't it? Even on airplanes, people sit reading Hindi novels. Earlier, people used to hold an English book, even if upside down, to show they read English. So there is a huge change in society. Language is only a tool, but communication is a skill. There is a big difference between the two. Yes, you had the mic at the back.

That is a very good question, a personal one but very good. It is like this: every person, in times of difficulty, I believe that when a person is riding the horse of success, even if a friend like KG Suresh comes to me and says, 'Subhash ji, I have heard something; you are not doing it right,' I will not listen at that time, even though he is my well-wisher. I will not learn at that time. But when a person is not in success but in trouble, he learns more. That is my firm belief. Secondly, every person reacts to trouble in their own way. In 2019, many business and corporate groups faced difficulties, but each reacted differently. Some ran away with bank money at night; others did something else. Today we hear about fraud cases filed by banks. But if you want to ask about me, I kept patience and understood this because I learned from my elders and grew up in a culture that taught: if you have to repay someone's money, do it with folded hands. You will understand from one thing: I started 'Subhash Chandra Show' in 2014 and recorded 160 episodes by 2018. But in 2018, I felt financial trouble coming, so I stopped the show in advance. Why did I stop? It came to my mind: 'Son, stop giving speeches now. You have to repay debt. If you give speeches, people will say, 'Look, he is giving speeches; he has to repay the world's debt.' First finish your work, repay the debt, live peacefully. Accept that situation.' Just like any trouble comes and you accept it—as soon as you accept it, half the pain is gone, the trouble reduces, and your thinking power does not get impaired. So the same happened with me: I accepted the situation, did not let my thinking power deteriorate. That is why today I am sitting before you again. I have repaid all debts, and my business is doing well.

Absolutely. That's a very good question, and there has always been a concern that our servers are abroad, and all Indians' data is in foreign countries. So it is very important—look at China: whether social media or GPS, they developed everything indigenous. We also created some platforms in between, but they didn't succeed as expected. There was a lack of acceptance and maybe they were not user-friendly. I believe that in the coming days, our software engineers, since we rule Silicon Valley today and have hubs like Hyderabad, it should not be very difficult. We need to create an environment so that we develop our own social media apps and our information and data remain with us. I fully agree with you.

Assume you are in business. Your product is good, but if you cannot communicate its features and qualities to the customer, the product will not sell. In this regard, communication is very important. If you do not communicate properly with your employees about the product, standard operating procedures, and business information, your business will not flourish. So communication is as important in business as it is in building relationships.

Absolutely, this is a concern. Nowadays, we have family groups on WhatsApp, but we message each other from bedroom to drawing room. Isn't it? It is a matter of great concern. We are connected to the whole world but don't talk to our own families. Communication exists because we are social animals. But if we become anti-social, not communicating with our families—you can see whether it is litigation or divorce rates, everything is increasing in the country, and somewhere there is a breakdown of communication. Sir, the way we talk to them creates emotional bonds. There is a saying: 'A boss demands respect, a leader commands respect.' So he is a leader. You know. So I think this communication skill makes him a leader.

Suresh ji, thank you very much for coming to my show today. Thank you. And you answered so many students' questions. Thank you very much.

Look friends, artificial intelligence has already arrived. It has bad effects and good effects. But maintaining empathy with each other is the only solution to remain connected with your near and dear ones. Maintaining trust in each other is a very big thing. Today, if you put your hand on the shoulder of a broken person and listen to them a little—'Don't worry, I am with you,' 'I am truly your well-wisher'—that is a great act of empathy. It is very important, especially for mass communication students, I want to say: don't be a content creator, be a trust creator. That will be your test, and that will be your future where you will succeed or not. In the age of AI, there is a flood of information. But the future is not for the one with the most answers; the future is for the one who can win another's heart through their dialogue power. Because this is the skill that runs the world. So with this, I will say: keep communicating with each other, because the world will run through this dialogue. Wish you all the very best. Thank you very much. Jai Hind.