The Bageshwori Temple in Nepalgunj was crowded with devotees on Shivaratri. Because the line was long, and it was moving slowly, people soon started talking to one another to pass their time. I too was trying to take advantage of the moment and about to start a conversation with my wife, when an Indian couple right before us started an intimate conversation between them.

Their conversation soon turned to the mastery of the English language. Looking at a boat in the pond, his wife said, “The boat looks like a swan”.

“Looks like ... what?” asked the husband. “A swan…hansa in Hindi,” answered the wife. Upon this, the husband said, “No, darling, this is not called a hansa in Hindi. It is a swan, which is called a bakula (heron) in Hindi.” The wife wasn’t convinced with the hubby’s translation of the word swan, still she managed to give him a soothing smile, saying, “Oh I see.”

Upon this, the husband grew yet more confident and smiled back at his wife, portraying arrogance over his mastery of the English language. The wife then asked, “How come, honey, the swan is called a bakula in Hindi? The husband got a bit angry and disappointed for her failure to grasp her hubby’s point.

The man’s arrogance grew even stronger, and he soon discovered a subtler way to convince his wife to accept his translation of the word swan as bakula in Hindi. Confident that this would surely work this time, he said, “I can understand your confusion, darling, but all you need is practice and patience to understand English because I have been an English teacher for long.”

Although the wife still didn’t seem to agree with the hubby’s way of transforming a swan into a heron through his translation, yet she smiled at him, wearing a silence over her face. Her silence was meaningful for she didn’t want him to be disappointed with his flawed translation. But her silence that carried its own meaning deep within somehow helped her hubby grow even more jubilant and confident with his accomplishment. But this is where the husband missed the whole point as he was mistaken by his wife’s silence as her acceptance.

A woman’s silence should not be interpreted as her acceptance, as it is her very way of life, her very way of understanding things in life. Yet her silence is often misunderstood and misinterpreted. And this is where the understanding withers, and misunderstanding grows between men and women!