Language barrier?.....no problem!

A motherly looking lady walked in while I sat gazing at the choo-choo train in the children's park. Many days I've sat in the train and imagined going chaga-chaga-choo-choo all the way back home. I would have tried climbing in the airplane see-saw too but that's too small for my motherly butt, so I spared that poor airplane.

"Hi" she said with a smile that warned me "I don't speak any English!"I replied with a mighty smile that told her "I want to have a conversation with anybody, even a stranger who speaks no English." She understood I guess. She asked something in her language, ignoring what she was talking about, I asked," Spanish?" "Si," she replied with a lovely smile. "I don't (I shook my head vigorously to drive home the point) speak Spanish, only ENGLISH( I said English louder than the rest). She made a pout to tell me there was no chance for any conversation between us.

I didn't want to give up so easily. Loneliness can be so intriguing at times that it could bring the stranger in you alive; I've never been much of a conversationalist but how long can one survive, talking with oneself? I needed company. I needed somebody to talk to. Anybody would do, even this stranger who didn't share a common language with me.I wasn't going to give up so easily.

"You've baby?" I asked, thinking the word 'kids' or children would be too difficult for her to comprehend. "Bha-be?" she asked back. Hhatever! I knew she understood. "Si! uno,"she smiled. A person smiles a lot when in a tight situation like the two of us were in. She pointed to me,she was asking the same to me my instinct told me. "dos" I replied with my two fingers up in case my pronunciation failed the counting in Spanish I had picked from listening to Ricky Martin's song. The song played in my head.

She took out her cell phone and showed me her daughter's picture and I did the same. It is an amazing discovery that we spent two hours together in the park and shared details about each other despite the language barrier.

I learnt she is from El Salvador, mother of one and her daughter was left with her parents. She knew I'm from Bhutan and that I miss my daughters a lot. Other than that we even managed to talk about the weather, how hot and humid it was and where we lived in the neighborhood and landed up with the promise that we would meet again the next day too.

As we waved 'bye's, I walked back with the realization that maybe she too needed somebody to talk to about her daughter just like me. How amazing it is that mothers need no language to talk about their kids even with strangers who do not speak your language.