Bansal - Speaking sKills

Speaking sKills

Dr. Vinay Bansal

This is a work of creative nonfiction. Some parts have been fictionalised for various purposes.

Copyright 2021 Dr. Vinay Bansal

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by an electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review.

First eBook edition - March 2021

Preface

Y es, I understand that you already know how to speak and converse. After all, that is something you had been taught ever since you were a child. Starting from your first words to having a million words in your vocabulary, learning multiple languages, you have walked a long way. And yet, you are here, with this book in your hand, to relearn a skill so inherent in you. Or maybe, just to polish them up. Well, you are definitely not alone. At some point in time, everyone thinks that he/she needs to become a better orator, a better communicator, and sometimes, even link their very nature to the way they speak. If you have a mean tongue, you come off as a bad person; if you speak sweetly, you are a nice person, irrespective of your actual nature. I present to you this book with the hope that no matter what help you need, this book will be able to guide you with it.

I wont be surprised if you question the choice of my title, but I promise you that it is very apt because Speaking might Kill. Humans are the only known species on the planet who can talk and communicate to all the other members of the species through multiple languages, gestures, and even silence. We learn how to speak at the mere age of 1, but we don't know what to talk about until the very end. We mostly end up saying the wrong things at the wrong time, something that stays with us far longer than we would prefer. If we dont rectify that habit, it only creates disputes and kills harmony, peace, and brotherhood. Be it with our spouse, friends, neighbours, or countries, speaking skills matter. Speaking without Skills will Kill - a lesson important enough to write a book on.

Before you begin, I would like to set a disclaimer that the objective of the fictional content of the book is not meant to be taken from a technical point of view; and is not written to be technically sound. It is a setting created to aid and connect the lessons of the book, with the hope that it also creates an interest in the minds of the readers.

Contents

Prologue

A grey-haired, overweight scientist walks over to his cabin on a cold, December night. He hasnt been able to sleep very well these past few weeks. He was on the verge of a break-through - his masterpiece was on the road to completion. He wrapped his shawl tightly around his torso, fastening his pace. This beautiful city of Chandigarh was his home, but the cold temperature in the winter wasnt something he was quite fond of. Even then, he was exceptionally pleased this winter. It was going to bring his long-desired dream come true.

Dr. Bakshi has spent his entire life as a professor of psychology. His expertise in human behaviour was world-renowned. His old-fashioned specs and dull clothes lent him the distinct look of a Punjab University professor.

Reaching his cabin, he pushed open the door. Without turning on the lights, he walked over to a corridor on the right leading to another door. Typing in the passcode on the door handle, he entered the spacious laboratory. It was decorated with computers, wires, and a humanoid robot on a semi-fowler bed. His assistant, Kritika, who was working on one of the computers, walked over to him.

I have checked its components, Dr. Bakshi. You can start with your project. Kritika was a beautiful, bright girl who had completed her BTech as a Software Engineering from Punjab Engineering College (PEC) a few months back. By luck, she received the opportunity to work under one of the leading psychologists in India. In her early twenties, her internship in Robotic software has given her the opportunity of a lifetime.

Kritika had been recently appointed in this top-secret project on the recommendation of Dr. Singh, the Head of PEC, who happened to be a very dear friend of Dr. Bakshi. They were going to build a humanoid robot - SAMA, who would be able to communicate and work like any normal human, maybe even better. Its human-like appearance could be mistaken for an actual human, and its physical structure has been designed and constructed in one of the leading engineering institutes in India. Dr. Bakshis psychological prowess would instill in it human emotions, while Kritikas software capability would insert them into SAMAs computed memory.

Dr. Bakshi had always dreamt of an idea that could change the way people understand communication and human behaviour. When he heard of this project whispered around in the government sector, he couldnt stop himself from being a part of it. The top-secret aspect of the case was why he chose Kritika as his apprentice, who was not only brilliant at her work but was also hardworking and eager to work on this project.

The professor was deeply affected by the recent pandemic and the dire situation in which it had dropped the mental and psychological state of humankind. He knew that the exact cause of this pandemic was not just a virus; it was a deep-rooted problem in the way we, humans, communicate. He understood that humans didnt only need a vaccine for the virus. A vaccine against our inability to communicate was the highlight at this hour.

Dr. Bakshi had spoken at length about this very idea in an online conference of the World Psychologists Association, We need to possess the ability to prevent future Covid-like situations. In todays high-tech world, the attempt at prevention is a necessity. If you ask me, the root cause of the very creation of the Covid virus and the difficulties faced while controlling it was due to the lack of Communication. Some countries that did not have good communication with other countries created Covid as a Bioweapon. Then, supposedly, due to a communication gap, it got leaked abruptly into the world. There are many types of communication gaps. China, for example, is a country that prefers Mandarin over English for conversation. The world leaders are not well-versed in Mandarin and have to take the help of translators. These translators lack the actual essence of communication - the effect of emotion, and so the entire conversation becomes monotonous.

Moreover, when the disease spread, countries failed to communicate the exact type and severity of the disease to other countries on time, which led to the escalation of the problem. Surprisingly enough, the only proven method to stop the spread was social distancing. But we all know that Humans are social animals. We can not stop communicating, so it became one of the biggest challenges we had to face as humankind. Its true that humans can not stop communication, but the problem is that they don't know how to communicate properly either. Otherwise, Covid wouldn't have arisen in the first place. Thanks to mass media communication channels, this disease was somehow controlled. So, communication is both the cause and the remedy.

That very speech had seeped into a more significant notion, transforming into a march towards robotic experimentation on communication. Dr. Bakshi felt that humans were slowly turning into robots, but if he could make a Robot communicate properly, he could help humans too. The robot would retain every method in the universe that could facilitate better communication; it would be able to maintain every information taught to it. After it becomes proficient, it could be used to teach the world how to converse again, without missing out on anything. Additionally, it could be sent out to hostile or uncomfortable situations to transfer the perfect message through the ideal emotion. With its humanistic appearance and voice modulation, people usually wont be able to differentiate between an actual human and a humanoid robot. Of course, the government mission behind the creation of the robot was not to facilitate Dr. Bakshis idea. But why not kill two birds with a stone?