Each culture has gestures, slang and body language that is unique unto itself. What’s fun as a traveler is watching and learning not just the big picture of a culture – but also these little minutia that permeate daily life. My favorite example of this is what we refer to as the "head wobble". How to describe the head wobble…? I fear this is no easy task.It is not a nod, in the traditional chin to chest “yes” gesture that we know. Nor is it a chin to shoulder “no” gesture. It is, if you will, a cross between the two – more of an ear to shoulder type of nod. The irony of this gesture is that while it looks like a perfect love child of yes and no, it’s meaning is multi faceted and wholly dependent on mood, circumstance, and perhaps weather. The head wobble, can mean: “Yes!”; it can mean “No”; it can mean “Maybe”; it can mean “I don’t know”; it can mean “You’re welcome”; it can mean “I hear you”; or “I understand” or even “Yes, I hear you, but I don’t understand, and therefore I’ll just wobble at you and hope you’ll move on.” The latter being my least favorite meaning, as it is hard to know that this is the implication.
As disciples of a definitive Yes/No culture it can be enormously frustrating to try and decipher the meaning of the head wobble. After some nervous trial by fire I came to realize that the wobble of the auto drivers is the easiest to read, but not perhaps the best to study.
Me: “Venkatapuram?” (This, by the way, is the name of our neighborhood. If we have an actual address I couldn’t tell you what it is. Nor am I certain that our street even has an actual name. But I digress…)
Auto Driver: Head Wobble. Pause. Speeds away without a word.
This is a strong indication of the negative. Either, “I don’t understand your ridiculous accent.” Or “No, I will not take you there.” Either way, I get the picture. By contrast the affirmative, usually goes like this:
Me: “Venkatapuram?”
Auto Driver: Head Wobble. Pause. Then he switches on the meter. The pause can seem like forever sometimes, especially in a monsoon.
The other random miscue we have noticed is the use of the word “OK”. Indians use “OK” quite a bit. Even those with very limited English know and use “OK”. Here, in India, it is very much an affirmative word. You would not use it, for example, to explain mediocrity, as in: “The soup is just OK.” There is no subtlety or multiple meanings. OK is good, or yes, period. When we eat out and the waiter comes to ask if we would like anything else Pat and I used to be in the habit of saying: “I think we’re OK.” In response to this the waiter would typically give us a look of perplexity just before wobbling his head, leaving, and returning with a menu. Or less complicated, might be: “More coffee sir?”. To which Pat replies, “I’m OK.” At which time the waiter head wobbles, and pours more coffee into his cup. I’m not sure if it's just Pat and I who do this, or if it's an American trend, but I suddenly realize how ambiguous we sound. We are trying to reform ourselves, but old habits die hard. And here I thought Indian head wobbling was odd…
Since it's near impossible to photograph the head wobble, I have included some of my favorite recent pictures. In the top picture are my favorite head wobblers - Dr. Sharma's 2 girls and a neighborhood boy. The bottom picture is from the festival of Ganesh... more on that later!
As disciples of a definitive Yes/No culture it can be enormously frustrating to try and decipher the meaning of the head wobble. After some nervous trial by fire I came to realize that the wobble of the auto drivers is the easiest to read, but not perhaps the best to study.
Me: “Venkatapuram?” (This, by the way, is the name of our neighborhood. If we have an actual address I couldn’t tell you what it is. Nor am I certain that our street even has an actual name. But I digress…)
Auto Driver: Head Wobble. Pause. Speeds away without a word.
This is a strong indication of the negative. Either, “I don’t understand your ridiculous accent.” Or “No, I will not take you there.” Either way, I get the picture. By contrast the affirmative, usually goes like this:
Me: “Venkatapuram?”
Auto Driver: Head Wobble. Pause. Then he switches on the meter. The pause can seem like forever sometimes, especially in a monsoon.
The other random miscue we have noticed is the use of the word “OK”. Indians use “OK” quite a bit. Even those with very limited English know and use “OK”. Here, in India, it is very much an affirmative word. You would not use it, for example, to explain mediocrity, as in: “The soup is just OK.” There is no subtlety or multiple meanings. OK is good, or yes, period. When we eat out and the waiter comes to ask if we would like anything else Pat and I used to be in the habit of saying: “I think we’re OK.” In response to this the waiter would typically give us a look of perplexity just before wobbling his head, leaving, and returning with a menu. Or less complicated, might be: “More coffee sir?”. To which Pat replies, “I’m OK.” At which time the waiter head wobbles, and pours more coffee into his cup. I’m not sure if it's just Pat and I who do this, or if it's an American trend, but I suddenly realize how ambiguous we sound. We are trying to reform ourselves, but old habits die hard. And here I thought Indian head wobbling was odd…
Since it's near impossible to photograph the head wobble, I have included some of my favorite recent pictures. In the top picture are my favorite head wobblers - Dr. Sharma's 2 girls and a neighborhood boy. The bottom picture is from the festival of Ganesh... more on that later!
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