ONE YEAR LATER...

How many words does one speak in a minute, in an hour, in a day or in a lifetime? Or how much does one talk? ‘Even if you think you don't, you do’, says Simpsons writer Rob Lazebnik. “Talking is like drinking a great cabernet.”

Social psychologists say the people who are most likely to be over-talkers are:

•      People with Asperger's-type disorders (a disorder that amongst other symptoms,         exhibits a restricted range of interests and/or repetitive behaviour)

•       People who are anxious and babble out of nerves, trying to please the person they are    talking to.

•       Narcissists, who think that what they have to say is very important and entertaining.

So what category shall we put our politicians in--nervous, anxious, narcissists, suffering from some disorder or simply entertainers? Why do our politicians talk so much: more so when they are making public speeches, and are swept by their own rhetoric and the applause and adulation that follows. A speech is defined as a formal address, delivered to an audience that seeks to convince, persuade, inspire or inform.

In the world chronicle there have been epoch making and landmark speeches and powerful orations that have changed the course of the history of mankind.

Moses’ spoke of God’s Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai which concern matters of fundamental importance in both Judaism and Christianity: the greatest obligation (to worship only God), the greatest injury to a person (murder), the greatest injury to family bonds (adultery), the greatest injury to commerce and law (bearing false witness), the greatest inter-generational obligation (honor to parents), the greatest obligation to community (truthfulness), the greatest injury to movable property (theft).

The Funeral Oration of Pericles in 431 BC redefined oration and inspired the Athenian people cleverly honouring the fallen soldiers while simultaneously galvanizing the living citizens into more action to ensure their death was not in vain invoking a deep sense of sorrow while simultaneously setting up feelings of national pride and faith among the audience.

Socrates delivered his apology speech during his trial and is an oration masterpiece as he defended himself in 399 BC against the charges of "corrupting the young, and by not believing in the gods in whom the city believes, but in other daimonia that are novel." “The unexamined life is not worth living.” It is such a profound statement attributed to Socrates. True. People who do examine their lives, who think about where they've been, how they got here, and where they're going, are much happier people.

 

In his Gettysburg address on the 19^th November 1863 Abraham Lincoln spoke of ‘a new birth of freedom’. Over time, this speech with its ending - government of the People, by the People, for the People - has come to define democracy itself.

 

Swami Vivekananda speaking at the World’s Parliament of Religions in Chicago on 11^th September, 1893, created history by his soul-stirring address  as he began: ‘Sisters and Brothers of America', Newspapers like the New York Herald wrote of him saying “Vivekananda is undoubtedly the greatest figure in the Parliament of Religions. After hearing him we feel how foolish it is to send missionaries to this learned nation". The world celebrates this day as World Brotherhood Day as a mark of respect to that speech he made.

 

Winston Churchill delivered one of the most powerful and unusual speeches of all times during WW-II, at the threat of a Nazi invasion. On June 4th, 1940, he spoke before the House of Commons to warn them of this grim possibility. The speech was immediately recognized to be historic. One of Churchill's secretaries noted in his diary "A magnificent oration, which obviously moved the House." ‘…we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills ,we shall never surrender…’

In August 1963, Martin Luther King electrified America with his momentous ‘I Have a Dream’ speech, dramatically delivered from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. His soaring rhetoric demanding racial justice and an integrated society became a mantra for the black community and is as familiar to subsequent generations of Americans as the US Declaration of Independence.

 

‘Tryst with Destiny’ delivered by Jawaharlal Nehru, towards midnight on 15 August 1947  is considered to be one of the greatest speeches of all times and to be a landmark oration that captures the essence of the triumphant culmination of our independence struggle against the British Empire . “At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom”.

Of course, any list of great speeches would be incomplete without a mention of Shakespeare, the master of rhetoric, the Bard himself. ‘Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears’ a line of a speech by Mark Antony in Julius Caesar is one of his most famous lines from all of his works. Comparisons have been drawn between this speech and political speeches throughout history in terms of the rhetorical devices employed to win over a crowd.

 At the end of his oration, Antony utters to himself, "Now let it work. Mischief, thou art afoot. Take thou what course thou wilt."

The Telegraph, Calcutta in its lead news ‘He who lives by Twitter shall…’ datelined New Delhi May 19 observes that Prime Minister Modi, ‘susceptible to being carried away by tumultuous receptions abroad appears to have crossed the 140 character rekha’ (sms has 140 character limit) when first in Shanghai and then in Seoul he said that ‘earlier, you felt ashamed to be born in India’. “The Prime Minister, true to his style of dividing India ‘before me’ and ‘after me’ in the manner of messiahs, was trying to draw a distinction between the country he inherited and the one he rebuilt in the past 12 months” says the lead news article.

Will it be a landmark piece of oration that will keep reminding us Indians of our shame at being born in India before 26 May 2014 --- 

                          …till one greater man

Restore us, and regain the blissful seat…

                                     --Paradise Lost: John Milton