sketch in pen by Meera Rao
I discovered that sketching and listening to a lecture are not compatible for me when I did this piece a while ago. He was talking about physics & philosophy and soon I realized that I was so deeply engrossed in observing his features, light, shadows etc that I was not 'listening' to his points at all! Usually I listen to Public radio talk programs and draw, sketch or paint without any problem. On this particular instance though, I failed miserably at multitasking :) I then closed by sketch book, put my pen away and concentrated on his talk. This really made me wonder how much of those radio programs do I really 'hear'!!! I can't remember much of what he said but my takeaway from that day is that true listening requires concentration and processing :). No wonder it is called the 'art of listening.'
