Chapter:
1 Listening Skills The Boy Who Broke the Bank
Listening
skills from the story
Listening
is a facility that most living beings possess. While animals retain their
listening ability long after babyhood, human beings seem to lose their capachy
to listen 8 English and Soft Skills
as
they grow older. Notice how many people are unable to listen to teachers in
college classrooms and to colleagues and employers in workplaces.
When
we were young we could communicate with people fairly easily. This is because
we depended more on our non-verbal communication skills. But now that we are
older there are so many things that interfere with our capacity to listen. What
then should we do? When somebody speaks, we must listen. If we do not
understand what a person says, we can ask questions to clarify our doubts. We
must look beyond the words being spoken and try to understand what the person
is thinking and feeling. In other words, we must learn to listen with empathy.
The
sweeper boy in the story needs to get his salary but the manager does not care
about the boy and his difficulties. On the other hand, the washerman's boy
listens to his friend. He understands the sweeper boy's difficulties,
empathises with him and actually starts looking for another job for his friend.
Mrs
Srivastava develops her own mistaken understanding of the boy's intention to
leave the bank. She casually shares her knowledge with her friend who in turn
tells her husband, and thus the rumour of the collapse of the bank spreads like
wildfire.
Thus
the manager's inability to listen with empathy to the sweeper boy brings down
the bank. There is unnecessary chaos leading to a law and order problem in the
town.
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