You’ve got my nod


As an active listener, I often nod my head as I listen to people.  Turns out that I do it a little more vigorously than most other people – and this has become a trademark.  During a visit to a very remote village in Rajasthan, all the children of the village followed me for a whole day.  They would ask me questions and when I nodded in agreement every one of them nodded with squeals of laughter.

My nodding also has its South Indian touch to it, and so I nod slightly differently when I answer in the affirmative or negative.  My advisor at Syracuse once had a long discussion with me and as an afterthought he asked, “Do you agree”.  When I said a straightforward NO, he was shocked and he asked, “But you were nodding all the time that I was talking”!  Active listening can get taken to be a sign of agreement at times!

My friends at Syracuse made a video mocking my nodding in a video that you can see here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VA6KRSKb22M

AFTER that, you SHOULD try this video with my 5 month old

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHo7pTNk4bw

 


About Vivek Srinivasan

I work with the Program on Liberation Technology at Stanford University. Before this, I worked with the Right to Food Campaign and other rights based campaigns in India. To learn more, click here.

Have thoughts to share?

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.