Voice.

A while back, on my trip to Rajasthan for my sisters’ wedding, I noticed something about the people there that I hadn’t noticed in any other place I had visited, and it got me thinking. I enjoy learning about culture, and about how behavior is an extension of what cultures reinforce and don’t. The voices of the people from Rajasthan were very different from what I was used to experience every day in Mumbai-Pune and even on my multiple tours to testosterone flooded Punjab.

At first, I thought those beautiful, clear, masculine voices the men adorned was a result of their healthy diet (which leaves the lungs, the basic apparatus for voice, clear and thriving) and the dry weather, which could further effect out Voice-Instruments. However this was not it, because everyone spoke like this. Then something else began to emerge: Higher status individuals usually spoke with louder, untamed voices, whereas low status individuals were more reserved with the loudness in their voice. This happens anywhere: high status individuals are known to speak louder, just think of your boss or your teacher. However, in Rajasthan, where there are large spaces, and ownership is similar, voice is very closely linked with status. Other places may have a larger variety of differentiators, which the locals of Rajasthan may not have access to.

Although people voice plays an integral role in social structure any other place, voices were unusually loud there, with more timber. People spoke to each other in a coarser manner, and what’s more baffling is that nobody seemed to mind it. In fact it seemed that a loud, full voice served as a social barometer, determining whether or not someone fit a certain hierarchy, to say ‘you are not loud enough to give me orders’. It seemed even more unusual for me, since the urban scenario that we live in, it is usually considered rude to speak loudly. This of course has to do with the fact that there are so many of us, and a loud voice may intrude in another’s conversation.

What is very interesting is the various ways human beings show status, and we have come up with quite a few ingenious ways to one-up our fellow man. But one which I recently discovered and thought underrated was how we use voice.

I think it is time for a review, think of all the ‘large figures’ in your life, and think about how they use their voice. How do you use your voice? In which situations would you lower your spoken volume? In which situations is it okay for you to be a little louder? Do you regulate the timber in your voice when speaking in different situations?

©Shivam Nemani

Image courtesy: 
Man singing: http://competitiveresumes.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/voice.jpg

Morgan Freeman meme: http://funnypicturesplus.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/morgan-freeman-voice-funny.jpg