A Dumb Man's Language

We always take a lot of care in the way we speak with others. Speaking a language is the way of expressing our feelings and thoughts on whatever it is. We crave for developing our verbal skills because that’s what takes a major part in the way we are received in a society. The more we speak with a good vocabulary the more we are respected.

Have you ever wondered how a mute (speech disorder) person expresses his feelings or thoughts? So how is a mute person respected in a society if the people in a society are not aware of their language? I haven’t wondered about these questions either. Until this happened:

I was traveling back home from Mall after doing some good purchases that made my wallet smaller, but made my heart happier. I bought some books and some clothes. On the bus as usual I was thinking about something unwanted for my life and saw a really fat lady (fatter than me) board the bus along with her son. I have this unhealthy feeling of self compromisation when I see someone fatter than me (which obviously is not going to help me in any way). Then few minutes later a mute man boarded the bus. I found out that he was mute by seeing him expressing himself to someone in Sign Language before boarding the bus. But there may be the chance that the other person was mute. But I confirmed that this guy was the mute guy when he expressed himself in Sign Language to the driver. I guess the drivers here are trained to understand and reciprocate in sign language at least to some extent for the benefit of mute people.

In front of the stopping from where this guy boarded the bus, there had occurred a serious road accident and the police where clearing the traffic. Then suddenly this fat lady started doing some signs to this man, and this guy was replying her doing some other signs. His language was (Sign Language) so expressive that I found out that the lady was asking him about the accident and he was explaining what had happened and I understood to some extent that a car ran over a bike-guy and blood was flowing from his head. Now I thought that this lady is too fat, and on top of that she is also mute. But then she talked to her son and explained him what this mute guy was expressing to her.

So this woman had learned Sign Language - a language for the mute, even though she wasn’t a mute. What would necessarily be the reason for a person to learn the sign language if the person is not mute? Have you ever wondered how a mute person can share jokes, laughs, views on the world, politics, ever increasing gas prices etc? We can always do all these with anyone we want. We can do all these even with an unknown person who travels with you. But a mute person can do this only with people who knows their language. Luckily this guy has found this woman on this bus to do all this.

As the bus rolled on its way these two people involved themselves in very active conversation by exchanging series of signs, while I was simply watching them. I was practically eavesdropping on them. It made me furious that I could not understand most of their signs. This guy showed something from his wallet and this woman was doing some actions in response to it and I was like "What the hell is going on?” As their conversation builded they shared jokes. Both were laughing, and they were sharing jokes. The lady was pointing her son and she was expressing something to the man. And the man was like "Oh, I see". Now the son was feeling embarrassed as they were talking about him and he had no clue what they were talking. The lady was again pointing her son and expressing something and the man started laughing and the man replied something and the lady started laughing out loud. The boy was a bit annoyed that they were passing comments on him, which he had no clue what was about and the boy was like "come on mom, cut it out".

Now we reached the terminus and these two people where exchanging their wishes and went their part. This guy would have been feeling a lot happier for finding this woman on this journey. And this lady made a mute man happy simply because she knew their language. It’s the same for us also. When we find someone who knows our mother tongue no matter who the person is we feel a lot comfortable speaking with that person in our mother tongue. Well this man's mother tongue was the Sign Language.

I always have found an interest in myself in learning other languages. I can be immodest in saying that I know 5 languages (Tamil, English, Hindi, Japanese, little bit of Telugu). I always wanted to learn French or German; I guess I will learn a little bit of Mexican living in this place. But not once I had the thought about the Sign Language. So I thought one day I should also learn this Sign Language. I came back home and "google"d and "wiki"ed about the sign language. I found this picture somewhere and I could see that there were different signs for each alphabet in English. I also found this site where we can get a free package using which you can learn the language. Click Here.

So I told myself, some day I will also learn the "Dumb Man's Language" and make some one else happy.