Thursday, March 4, 2010

I Can Understand Sindhi

Few days back I was talking to a (boyish looking) woman whose age (about 3 years old) is less than her height in feet (90cm=3 feet). She and I have gotten into this habit of talking once a week and she will tell me about incidents at home. She is the niece of my friend about whom I have mentioned earlier (http://calmisc.blogspot.com/2009/08/cooking-disasters-in-middle-east.html).

Sometime back apparently there was a rather harsh exchange of words between this woman and her mother about water having been spilled by one of them. Each of them thought that the other was the guilty party.

And I used to ask this woman about it each time we spoke. And she would shake her head and say "meine nahi giraya" (I didn't spill it). And later she got into the habit of covering her ears whenever she spoke to me expecting me to ask that dreaded question.. I have a suspicion that this woman didn't like to dwell on that spill perhaps because I made it seem like the Exxon oil spill near Valdez.

The last time i spoke to her I asked her whether she spoke Sindhi. She replied "Haan,  mein aapse sindhi mein baat kar rahi hoon" (Yes, I am speaking to you in sindhi)..

After the call I was euphoric. I could understand whatever she was saying and I thought I had learnt a new language without even realizing it..  After some time, better sense prevailed. I understood that I had been taken for a small ride by this woman. Probably its my innocence that makes people take advantage of me..

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