Brevity Is The Soul Of Wit!

Dear PS ma'm,

Be assured that are folks like me who always look forward to wise words from elders like yourself. I have heard a lot about Thiruvalluvar but never read. These days, I find myself spending time reading Shubhshi-thani in Sanskrit. While I love the concise , short writing of the present I miss the beauty of the language - I cannot even begin to explain how much I enjoy Sanskrit, grammar and all

 

Dear Smt. Srinivasan:

Communication is to express and not to impress and brevity saves precious energy. Why waste effort by lecturing something when we could communicate it in a few words? Thiruvalluvar like teachers are born once in a blue moon. He effectively communicated right living in 1.5 lines divided into 10 per Adhikaram (Subject) and 133 such Adhikarams (subjects). I believe it would have taken a lot longer time to arrange his thinking into such short sentences.

Dear Sabitha,

Thirukkural is a treasure trove of right living. There are many who are capturing insightful management theories from this wonderful time tested teachings.

Viswa

 

many original works like Thirukkural subhashithani etc are short but commentaries or vyakyanams are long.Even the original author would be surprised to read them.Even Kamba Ramayanam has exhaustive interpretations and explanations and some original works shine only on account of beautiful commentaries.The inner significance of Bhagatgita may be realised in full only if we go thro various comments by great scholars.

In Kambaramayanam some times a single line can be interpreted in 21 ways.
Though brevity is the way of life, and people love to have brevity and clarity, literary scholars invariably long to read extensive bhashyams.The kavya-Soundarya or literary beauty will be revealed not by reading the original but by analysing extensions of commentaries.
Jayasala 42

 

Dear pushpa,
In avey brief manner you have come out with a thought provoking message. A witty remark need not be an elaborate one. It can be brief and at the same time striking. The most humorous flashes of wit are often the shortest. Just like wit, the ability to express ideas in the briefest manner requires much intelligence.Like Hanuman says the status of Sita by one sentence "Kanden Seethayai karpinukkanaiyai kangalal" if we want to express our ideas clearly, we must learn to put them in the briefest and aptest way.
with love
pad