Listening is difficult.

For couple of moths, I got an opportunity to meet number of people from different regions, different backgrounds, different professions. I really love interacting with people. So meeting all of them was like treat for me. 

The common thread I found among them was the lack of patience to hear what others are saying. Many of them were ardent champions of democracy and free speech ironically. But they were not ready to allow someone who was of the opinion like say, that free speech is harmful or democracy is worst form of governance. They had very strong opinions and were interested not in discussion but just dictation. 

This is widespread phenomenon these days unfortunately. People have their opinions about anything and everything. This is really a good sign. But unfortunately many a times these opinions are uninformed. They are not formulated objectively but are influenced by some external vested interests. There is nothing wrong in having strong opinion. The problem comes when people deny listening others' opinions. Many a times they also become aggressive and violent. 

This is really disturbing. Probably this is intolerance that was headline few days ago. Theories of democracy tells that there are some spaces within democracies which need to be democratized. This is nothing but inculcation of democratic values. This should start from childhood. Thus it's responsibility of parents to let their children voice their opinions and take decisions after discussions. This will make a child mature. Because I am honestly of the opinion that it's not intellect but ability and patience to hear others that will help in life ultimately.