A lesson I learned in undergraduate years: Brevity

I want to share a short lesson for all my younger friends in their formative years of high school and undergraduate. I learned this one of the most valuable lessons from one of the unusual of the mentors/teachers. It may be a little ironic that this article narrating for brevity may not entirely adhere to the practice it is preaching because background and details for illustration is little more elaborate.

I write 200+ recommendation letters every year and oversee many research reports by students. When asked for a draft two things are common in reports and letters, 1) unnecessary expansion and 2) superfluous use of words: “excellent” and “very best” types without qualifiers. All reports are good when they are prepared with caution to add most necessary details with brevity. I present below an illustrative example in the form of two letters with explanation at the end.

In many old countries and in India in the period for discussion 1960-1995 (perhaps even now) there was no Title transfer companies for property/homes. The houses (single family or multiple family homes) or property is transferred in a court via a registered deed. During 1960-1980, not only the local courts but some distant courts could have authority for transfer of deeds. This is about a property that was in the city of Varanasi, state/province of Uttar Pradesh. The Varanasi court as well as Court of Kolkata (then Calcutta) some 420 miles away could do the registration of the deed.

Now a municipal corporation (equivalent of a city government in US) will have a record termed municipal record. The recording of rightful owner is termed as “mutation”. It is important that an owner who brought a property using a registered deed at court get the mutation done to be regarded as rightful owner. The property tax is paid in the name of the municipal record owner. ?

My grandmother in a joint family then brought the house we lived by a registered deed done at Calcutta high court in 1970s. This is because it was easier for our extended family members to help perform the court procedure in Calcutta. When this is done, the deed has to be documented at Varanasi court, which was duly done within a year. It is “mutation” that was held up. Our extended family members tried, and nothing happened. I will explain below that all their efforts failed due to lack of brevity, which I learned de novo and firsthand. In mid 1980s when I became a graduate student, I had taken it upon myself to get the task done. I read through the registered court deed and wrote an application something like:

Dear Municipal Commissioner,

I the applicant, Ms. R. B. Devi brought this property through a registered deed (number, date). The recorded owner Ms. Pankajini Sur died so according to joint Hindu family act of Indian constitution; the property belonged to husband of Ms. Pankajini Sur, Mr. Haridas Sur. They had an only child a daughter who died in pre-teen years at the Prayagraj city while attending a festival. The property belonged to Mr. Satya Charan Sur, the only sibling, after the death of his brother Mr. Haridas Sur.

Mr. Satya Charan Sur had 2 sons and 5 daughters. All of the sons and daughters gave Mr. Ram Krishna Sur, the eldest son of Mr. Satya Charan Sur the power of attorney. Our court registered deed was signed between Mr. Ram Krishna Sur for an exchange of Rupees ten thousand, which was the prevailing market price of the property at the time of sale.

Applicant submits prayer to transfer the record of the property in the name of R. B. Devi from Ms. Pankajini Sur wife of Mr. Haridas Sur.

Respectfully submitted,

Ms. R. B. Devi

This is when I met a building inspector and my great teacher to instill the need of brevity, the late Mr. Amar Nath Mishra. He read the letter, told, ah you are too young. Let me help draft it:

Dear Municipal Commissioner,

I the applicant, Ms. R. B. Devi has brought this property through a registered deed (number, date) from the legal inheritors of the recorded owner. Applicant submits prayer to transfer the record of the property in the name of R. B. Devi from Ms. Pankajini Sur wife of Mr. Haridas Sur.

Respectfully submitted,

Ms. R. B. Devi

As I learned a lot during the municipal proceedings leading to successful “mutation” of our house subsequently, this brevity solved many issues that my original letter would have started. Our elder extended family members had failed in getting “mutation” done for similar reasons. Mr. Amar Nath Mishra collapsed all details into “the legal inheritors of the recorded owner”. This saved all clerical officers to send us to unnecessary witch hunt for death certificates for 1) Ms. Pankajini Sur, 2) Haridas Sur, 3) Their unnamed daughter, 4) Mr. Satya Charan Sur. It also would have been possible to receive succession certificates for Mr. Satya Charan Sur and their inheritors. All of which had been resolved (already legally satisfied) through elaborate but separate court proceedings in Calcutta court prior to registration but was not recorded in the registered deed and it would have been extremely expensive and time consuming do a second time unnecessarily. All of these would have resurfaced if my application write up was not short and succinct with Mr. Mishra’s help.

I do remember that my original application was much longer (more than half a page) with all unnecessary details. Also the original letters were written in Hindi not in English. It was also handwritten because computers and printers did not exist. One could go to a professional typewriter and pay good amount of money or simply write in good handwriting. I had chosen the later and got it signed with my grandmother. Many decades later my recollection automatically made it much shorter. This was a personal great lesson in brevity for me during my early undergraduate years. I wanted to share to illustrate the need to state with brevity.?