This, sort of, gives ammunition to what I had suspected all along, for a long, long time. When I got up this morning, since it is Onam, the Malayali’s festival of harvest today, I wished my wife:
“Happy Onam!”
She said, “Just a minute, I am a bit busy with the breakfast.”
Then I understood. What she heard (Oh, God!) was this:
“Kappy Venam” (I need Coffee!)
See what I am driving at? We don’t listen to people, we just gloss over the words and register only a few rhyming words in our mind (“Happy Onam” and “Kappi Venam”), and from that we construe or misconstrue our own ideas and thought.
There’s great hidden danger in doing this. Because “Happy Onam” is a pleasant greeting, whereas “Kappy Venam” is a demand, which could be misconstrued as bullying and unreasonable, and quite possibly, the start of a domestic fight.
Happy Oname
so very true. happens often. isn't it mostly with people we have around us most times ... and we hardly pay attention to what they are saying?
ReplyDeleteThat's right. We don't pay attention and that's the beginning of all domestic strife. We go by unspoken words, and gestures, rhymes, rhythms and habits and that's where we go wrong, well, most of the time.
ReplyDeleteThanks for commenting :)
j