Experience at Shakespeare's Birth Place

Note: This post is long overdue. I had withheld this post, as I thought I had lost the photos that should go with this post when my laptop crashed a couple of months ago. Fortunately, during my visit to India, I found that I had taken a complete backup of the photos that I shot in UK. So, here we go...

A visit to Stratford Upon Avon, the birth place of Shakespeare is like going on a pilgrimage for literature lovers. It took about an hour's drive from Birmingham to reach there. It is a picturesque village, bustling with tourists.

As seen in the map, Avon river dominates this locale. 

The performance chart at the Royal Shakespeare Theater was a standing proof of the prevalent theater culture.

Performance at the Open Year Theater on the banks of Avon...

We saw hoards of people heading towards the Henley Street... 

Shakespeare's Birth place comes into view.

 

I was awe-struck and was so excited to see the house from outside, that I was just standing there without even bothering to follow my friends who were heading to the entrance to buy the tickets.

The birth place tour starts with a multi-media presentation, which was fantastic. The show tries to describe the theater experience and simultaneously shows memorabilia. Here are some colorful shots that I captured at the show.

Inside the house, there were guides in period costume and they explained how life was in Shakespeare's times, when there was no electricity. My first concern was how they survived the winters without proper heating! 

Shakespeare's father was a glove maker and at times the income was insufficient and the whole family had to starve! Here is a shot of their humble dining room...

The pair of gloves shown in the above photo is a replica of popular gloves in Shakespearean times.

Let me end this place post with the great poet's grave...

Note that "u" is represented by "v" in archaic English

Love Hate Graphic

Every time I saw this advertisement in London buses, I was attracted by this powerful, yet simple graphic.

It is amazing to see how same graphic, with different angle can change the perception. Kudos to the creative designer who had come up with this! Come to think of it, everything in life too is like this. When you change your attitude, things too take a different color.

Verbal Communication

Lately, am alone in a new country, where every experience is new and am in a situation where survival of the fittest is very true. So, am constantly on the lookout for ways to excel and stand out in the crowd.

I have been thinking why is there so much difference in the way we talk and the way we write? I guess I am not alone in this kind of dilemma. How often do we take effort to apply any strategy in speaking (verbal communications)? Most of the conversations tend to be reactive instead of pro-active, that is why people tend to face conflicts and arguments.

What would happen if we try to apply writing strategy when we speak? Am sure it would result in better and improved overall communications. In fact, conversations should be a lot simpler than writing, because, primarily the "audience" is in front of you, where as in written form of communication, you have an extra step of identifying your "audience" and you cannot even gauge the reactions of the reader.

Let me list down some of the writing tactics that I follow:

1. Analyze the topic and gather information
2. Come up with clear picture of what is required to write
3. Write a draft and revise
4. Get a feedback from appropriate resources, if necessary

Well, coming back to conversations, most often I have observed that we tend to listen and answer without giving a second thought. We forget that in this form of communication, often we don't have a chance to revise. Further, many fail to get a feedback. To overcome this issue, you can take simple steps that would go a long way in making "successful conversations":

1. Listen carefully
2. Try to give direct answer
3. If you are not sure of what is asked, instead of giving an answer, you should try to phrase the question in your own words and confirm with the other person.
4. After answering, instead of keeping quite try to get feedback by asking "have I answered your question?" or "is this what you were expecting"

By asking this kind of simple questions, you would have a chance to understand if you have really had a successful conversation, which goes a long way in building strong communication skills.