The most important thing in communication....

The management guru Peter Drucker said: " The most important thing in communication is to hear what isn't being said".

I learnt this long back when I was a school-boy.

We were a joint family with my father C.M. Gopal and my uncles C.M. Ramachandran and

C.M. Narayanan.

(My uncle Ramappa owed some money to my father and my father was in dire need.)

My father called me one day and gave me a small bit of paper and asked me to hand it over to my uncle.

I looked at the bit of paper. It was a bus-ticket. On it my father had scribbled with a pencil:

. . . _ _ _ . . .

But, there is nothing in this paper, I said. My father smiled and said: Just give it to him. I will explain you later.

A day or two later my uncle came to my father and handed over some money to him. My father explained: What you saw is known as the Morse code. It means S.O.S. and is sent when ships are

in distress.

So you see, my uncle had heard what was not being said! I learnt a lesson and was proud of my father and uncles (who isn't?).