Neither nice words nor long speeches depict the actual within any individual. Behind the charade of verbosity and fluency, we easily impress others and satisfy our inflated egos. That’s why verbal communication is a great art, brimmed with all the nuances of world mastery. However, non-verbal communication or what is known as kinesics includes no art but is a sponta¬neous and uncensored exposition of our behaviour. This non-verbal behaviour always communicates. We convey ourselves inadvertently. At times, it proves to be a dead giveaway. So, there is always a “non-verbal leakage” from each one of us through our non-verbal communication, revealing what we really are.
Few months back, I had a chance to attend the book release function organized by some custodians of ‘dying’ art and culture. The chief guest, a leading light of society, had a terrible “non-¬verbal leakage”. It was damn hot that day, and unluckily in the midst of philosophical deliberations, there was an abrupt power cut, bringing all the ceiling-fans at the venue to a grinding halt. Everybody present was perspiring including the honourable chief guest. Waiting for nothing, he quickly removed the attached book jacket (paper cover) of the copy of the released hard-bound book which was gifted to him. He folded the book jacket and fanned it out for agitating the air to cool himself. Whether the star turn of the function did it deliberately or not, but the non-¬verbal communication from him surely smacked of plain intellectual snob¬bery.
The book had been authored after deep and extensive study, and that too by a learned scholar, deserved reverence and accolades. But, unfortu¬nately, it seems that those who speak aloud don’t perhaps know that small actions speak louder than big words. There is no labouring required to crack on for hours about religion, reform, and intellectual awakening. But there is certainly the need for strenuous efforts where an individual has to prove the veracity of his words through his deeds.
Not being sarky about the intellectual stalwarts of this piece of bruised land, who after being witness to a gory mayhem, have come out of hibernation to jangle on the clichéd art and culture of the walking wounded who buried thousands of precious human brains under the soil of oblivion. In fact, the walking wounded of our land owe a deep gratitude to such coterie of great Avtaars for their courtesy to dabble in hyperbole and have a whole of a time here.
Of late, while wading through the pages of one more newly launched magazine ‘The Kashmir Impact’, a long poem in its literary dispatch column was a perfect musing. Titled as ‘Long Live Intellectuals’ by Mushtaq Sikander, it was a critical verse of ponderings. Addressing the same Avtaars, the poet writes—
With age you lose Sight
Still it doesn’t deter your Flight
In never-ending Seminars, lengthy debates
And thread-bare discussions
You take Delight,
What happens in real life
You have False Insight.
Long Live Intellectuals.....
Assuming chairs of Academia
Little you do towards Academics
Distorting Knowledge for petty Fiefs
History will remember you as Pious Thieves.
Long Live Intellectuals….
 Selling your intellect cheap to the State
You deserve to be remembered with Hate
If you don’t have the nerve to stand and speak
For justice and truth
Break your Pen, burn your Book,
it is real Justice to you as a sloth.
Long Live Intellectuals.....
 Back to my observation, it has every possibility of being dismissed as beside the point.  However, it is through insignificant matters that most of us show what we are made of. We demean ourselves so poorly. ‘Intellectuals’ are no exception. As said by Arthur Schopenhauer, “individuals best show their character in trifles, in trivia where they are not on their guard. It is in the simplest habits that we often see the boundless egotism which pays no regard to the feelings of others and denies nothing to itself”. 

    (The author teaches at Media Education Research Centre, MERC, Kashmir University.)

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