Editorial

The Power of Words

Opinion | Editorial | John S. Shilshi | 12-Feb-2023

An organization of repute once reached out to 13 people to write articles on different contemporary topics for their annual publication. Being an important project, each writer was briefed carefully about the word count, deadline, editorial vetting of work and submission norms. After finishing his article, one of the writers had a telephonic chat with the editor to clarify some points. At the end of the discussion, the editor reminded the writer that if the article didn’t match the word count it would be shortened significantly. The writer anyway emailed his article and waited. In a few minutes, he got a reply, “Dear Sir, thank you for your article. When we spoke over phone, I thought it was a very long one. But did you shorten it? It's a beautiful article. The team will get back to you soon.” The writer let out a sigh of relief and changed his perception about the editor and publication, and continued to work with them many more times in the future.

A mother walked into her child’s room and saw him scribbling with crayons all over the walls, and she screamed, “What are you doing? Are you mad?! Stop it right now!”. It made no difference. The moment the mother walked away, the boy continued his scribbling, even larger, with a vengeance. The next time she walked in and saw what was going on, she calmed herself and said, “This is your room, you do what you like. You’re a big boy now. I can help you clean it later if you want.” The boy never scribbled on the walls again.

A blind beggar sat by a road where many people passed by, and kept begging for money. No one seemed to pay him any attention. Few onlookers decided to help him and gave him a bowl and a placard which read “I am blind, please help me”. Coins began to drop in the bowl, but just in trickles. A lady passing by suddenly stopped, and changed the writing on the placard. She wrote, “It’s a beautiful day, but I can’t see it”, and walked away. When she returned after a while, she found the bowl almost full with coins. The blind man thanked her and asked what she did. She replied, “I wrote the same thing about you, but a little differently”.

A PR firm-cum-institute in a popular city put up a signage, “We provide the best PR training money can buy”. Despite the seemingly catchy slogan, the response was poor. Six months down the line, one of the executives of the firm suggested that the slogan be re-written. A new slogan, “We bring out the best PR professional out of you” replaced the old one. Within a month’s time, the number of trainees who enrolled almost doubled.

A boy, average in studies, was always taunted by his father for bringing poor marks in his examination results. Deeply conscious of the disappointment and expectations of his father, he worked extremely hard and managed to secure 70% marks in his 12^th standard exams. Hoping to impress his father, he ran home and told him the news. His father just replied back, “Good”. The boy went into depression because he thought despite giving his best, he couldn’t satisfy his father, whom he loved so much. He took to bad company and drugs, and his life was ruined.

Had his father said a few words of appreciation, the boy may perhaps have gained more confidence and walked on a completely different path.

Each of these stories – although simple – justifies the importance of words. Words are so powerful; they can make people scale mountains, make or break relationships, help people achieve successes or push them to failures. The reality, however, is that while talking to family members, relatives, friends, peers and colleagues, or even strangers, we often take things for granted and never weigh our ‘words’. Words can inspire but words can also disappoint. It can build confidence but also crumble morale. As humans we may falter every day but being mindful of what we speak could mean a world to others. “Pleasant words are like a honeycomb, Sweetness to the soul and healthy to the bones.” (Proverbs 16:24)

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