Sweet Nothings - No Warning Bells This Time!

You have made me proud and happy with your opening sentence. Soft words not only win bad hearts, but, also make them good. I learnt the lesson, a few times the right way, but many times the hard way from the other direction. Being a writer I filtered out the negative instances where I did not use soft words and lost many things and talked about those where I did the right thing. That is selective reporting for you. I want to issue this clarification because I dont want ILites to think that I am such a good and sweet person. The only guarantee I can give them all is that I am a real person. And reality always is a mixture of the animal and the God, the bad and the good.

Thanks Ambika for your participation in the thread which means a lot to me.
regards,
sridhar

Dear Meenu,
As IL is just reeling from the after effects of the Gossip Thread I decided to go light for a week. But soon I am going to handle highly controversial topics like jealousy, in-laws, domestic violence and all.
Though I was concerned with what happened, I have always been fearless of frowns and careless of smiles. And unless we touch upon those controversial issues our learning will not be complete, Meenu.
I would be grateful if you can suggest to me (either in the open forum or through pm) some very vibrant and important topics.
As you correctly said, Sweet Nothings may be light, but all the more essential for a good life.
Thanks a lot for your kind wishes. May I wish you and your family a very happy new year. I know you are on the verge of taking a crucial career decision. I wish you best of luck in that. May God be on your side when you take such decisions and put them to action.
With Warm Regards,
sridhar

Dear Kamla,

When somebody of your stature, whose flow of language is natural, sweet and beautiful, says that my words seem to flow like a smooth and lilting brook, I really feel honoured.

I owe the refinement of writing skills to the most gracious ladies of IL, especially the specially gracious ones like you. Seeing your posts, with an anxiety to respond them with equal fervour, has helped me hone my writing skills. In this way I share a symbiotic relationship with IL.

Thanks once again for those words, Kamla, which I shall always hold close to my heart.
L,
sridhar

Dear Lakshmi,

Thanks for your kind wishes and wonderful words of praise. And let me wish you and yours a very happy and a prosperous new year, 2007.

With the good wishes and support from good people like you I will surely churn out more and better posts during the coming year.
regards,
sridhar

Dear Sridhar,Happy New Year to you.I would like to tell you of an incdent which happened on the last Friday. My husband had gone to get application form from a school in Mugappair. He was asking directions on the way to many people, though he knew the school was well inside. He got the reply that there was no school in that place. Then, he happened to ask a mechanic who was working in his garage for directions. The mechanic replied in the negative and said the school was in the main road. Just then, somebody asked the mechanic he directions to the Rohini Cinema, which is in Koyambedu, a god ditance from Mogappair. This fellow gave explicit directions to that person for that.Then, hubby happened to see the board with directions to the school, just a few yards from the workshop.So hubby called the mechanic and pointed the board out to him. The fellow was a bit ashamed. He said he did not know about the school.Then he promised that he shall give the directions from then on, if and when he wa asked.The fellow could give directions to a cinema which is in another locality, but did not know about a very famous school, which is just half a kilometer from his workshop.The point is- my hubby is a very short tempered person and would have normally flared up and talked very rudely to that person. But, that day he had quitely pointed out the mistake and came off. I feel that the mechanic would remember this for ever and may even try to learn about important nearby landmarks.

Dear Varloo,

Honestly speaking your husband did not utter any sweet nothings to the mechanic or anybody else to get the information. But given the fact that he is short tempered, his act of going again and pointing out the board to the mechanic quitely making the mechanic ashamed of his ignorance, is an act equivalent to sweet nothing.

And Varloo, I had an opportunity to put my principles to test yesterday. I was at a new fashionable hairdressers yesterday evening. I have never been to places like that. But this time I wanted to make a difference, if not to what is inside my head, at least to what is outside it.

When I was assigned a man and a seat I asked him his name. He was all smiles when he replied, "Karthik". How do you want your hair to be sir? He asked. I told him that I don't want to flaunt it like a college boy. Other than that he was an expert in the field and I told him that i was happy leaving my hair to his expert care. He started the work with a smile and took extra care in styling my hair. (persons who have seen me would know that it is not an easy task). The fact he had done a good job was evident only when I returned home. Both my wife and daughter exclaimed, "Hi, thats something different. You look nice in this hairstyle. How did you do that?"
"By sweet nothings" I said leaving them to guess the background.

Thanks Varloo for sharing with us the incident.
regards,
sridhar

Dear Varalotti,

I read with interest your wonderful post. Never have I seen this kind of meaning being ascribed to the hackneyed words, Sweet Nothings. You write very well. As somebody has said it is like the steady flow of stream, uninterrupted, neither too fast nor too slow, neither too soft, nor too ferocious.

But pardon me, Varalotti, are you not in one way glorifying the ancient art of buttering-up, or what we say in our place, kaakka pidikkarathu?

I will be happy if you can reply to me without getting offended.

regards,
Sriranjani

Dear SriRanjani,

Welcome to IL. I saw your reply to Sridhar and thought i could clarify . Buttering up or kakka pidikardu is to praise some one to the sky to get things done. The sweet nothings is just that, small talk or a little bit of conversation with some one to get ones work done. There is no praise involved. it can be a just a little enquiry about some one and their family or the weather or something else that appears to be mundane in daily life, but makes some one else feel special. Sridhar has given a few examples and also read Varloos post describing the incident with her husband. They are good examples of Sweet nothings.

Vandhana

Dear Vandhana,
I was about to say the same thing. You have done it eloquently well. Thanks once again.
sridhar
Sriranjani, hope you will understand the spirit of sweet nothings compared to kaka pidikarathu.
In sweet nothings no lie is uttered. No falsehood is shown. Whereas buttering up or kakka pidikarathu is all about false praises and capricious buttering up.
sridhar

Most Gracious ILites,

We were quite relaxed during the last one week discussing New year parties and sweet nothings.

It is high time we get into another controversy. And what better controversy is there than to women about age and ageing?

Thats what I have attempted for this Wednesday's thread. If it is offensive please forgive me. But offensive or not, these are the lessons we have to learn in our life.

I want your views on this sensitive topic. Needless to say, without your views my thread will never be complete.

Regards,
Varalotti