"But, I think he spoke well. Everyone seemed to have enjoyed his speech" said Mani, a member of the association.
"Did he speak well? You know what a great the reputation he has. He has mastered all the literary works in Tamil. He could have delivered an interesting and insightful lecture about a literary work like Kambaramayanam, Silappadhikaram, Thirukkural, Agananuru, Purananuru etc. But he chose a bland topic, 'Life in the Stone Age and in the Cellphone Age' and gave a talk that was neither interesting, nor insightful. I am not happy about his speech."
"You didn't suggest the topic to him!"
"No, I didn't. I asked him to choose the topic, hoping that he would choose an appropriate topic and deliver an interesting talk on that topic. Had I known that he would choose a dull topic like this, I would have suggested an appropriate topic, myself" said Kannan, with disgust.
His telephone rang.
"It should be one of our members. He is going to complain that the speech was pathetic!" said Kannan and picked up the receiver.
"I will meet you again tomorrow" said Mani took leave of Kannan.
When Mani came to meet Kannan the next day, Muthazhagan was sitting in Kannan's room.
"I am grateful to you for giving me this opportunity. I have delivered many speeches about Tamil literary works. But, when I considered your audience, I thought, 'these people live a busy life. They may be grappling with problems and stressful situations. If I speak to them about life in general, they will be able to relate themselves to my speech.' Thinking on these lines, I chose the topic 'Life in the Stone Age and in the Cellphone Age' and spoke about certain general aspects of life, based on what I have experienced and what I have learnt from books and scholars. My aim was to drive home the point that despite all the great transformations in our lives that have taken place during the time between the stone age and the present age, certain basic aspects about life have remained the same. I think that the audience liked my approach. I felt satisfied about my speech" said Muthazhagan.
"Yes, sir. Our members enjoyed your speech a lot. Many of them have suggested to me that after sometime, you should be called to speak at our forum again" said Kannan.
After Muthazhagan had left, Mani asked Kannan, "What has happened, Mr. Kannan? Yesterday you said that Muthazhagan's speech was not impressive and that you expected to receive flak from the members, for arranging his lecture!"
"Yes, Mr. Mani. That was my impression earlier. It appears that I didn't listen to Mr. Muthazhagan's speech carefully. I now realize that since I didn't like the topic he had chosen, I developed a preconceived notion that his speech won't be interesting. During his lecture, I had some distractions relating to my work and even had to leave the hall a couple of times to attend to exigencies. Therefore, I should have missed some important parts of his lecture. I also failed to gauge the reaction of the audience. Yesterday, after you had left, I received calls from several members, appreciating Mr. Muthazhagan's speech. Only after hearing our members' appreciative comments, did I realize that my judgement about the speech, made in haste, was wrong" said Kannan, his tone conveying his embarrassment..
"I thought that Mr. Muthazhagan chose an appropriate topic after studying our audience, spoke well on that topic and impressed the audience. But, when you said that his speech was not good, I didn't want to enter into an argument with you" said Mani, with a smile.
Section 2
Knowing Your Audience
avai aRindhu ArAyndhu solluga sollin
thogai aRindha thUymaiyavar.
Verse 710
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