Pithy Eloquence

Just read an article about a guy who has written an entire book on Twitter. I have been trying to get hold of this Twook. Just the thought simply fascinates me. It is nostalgic for Indians. Thiruvalluvar would have tweeted his Thirukkural; Sant Kabirdas, Vemana Mahakavi and others would have tweeted their 160-words simplets instead. That would have been awesome.

For example:

karey buraaee sukh chahey, kaisey paave koi,
Ropai birva aak ko aam kahaan se hoi

would have a tweet like

a man's desire for good for all his evil deeds
is like expecting mango from your garden weeds

Now how does one write a book in a 20 chapters, each of 160 words or less. Quite challenging. Where is the room for demonstrating your creative genius? I remember Alistair MacLean using u two full pages to describe the dashboard of a submarine or an airplane. What would McLean do on Twitter ?

Imagine our Finance minister presenting Union Budget on Twitter. The first 100 tweets would be consumed for thanking Sonia Gandhi, if he did not change his style to being crisp and succinct.

Along our National Highways, there are enough tweets asking folks to slow down and drive carefully. Traffic management is tweeting, although to deaf ears or blind eyes.

Twitter is paradigm shift in our conventional wisdom. "Pithy eloquence" is not an oxymoron anymore. It is a personification of Twitter as a platform. IMHO, micro-blogging is a step in that direction. It is asking writers to cut the flab. Its asking an important question constantly - where is my beef? what's your point? Creativity must find a way into the world of one liners if it wants to be a part of this society. Its time to re-write "Gone with the Wind" in 10 easy tweets. And its about time we all enjoyed it as well :-)