“We Indians know about silence. We are not afraid of it. In fact, for us, silence is more powerful than words. Our elders were trained in the ways of silence, and they handed over this knowledge to us. Observe, listen, and then act, they would tell us. That was the manner of living.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With you, it is just the opposite. You learn by talking. You reward the children that talk the most at school. In your parties, you all try to talk at the same time. In your work, you are always having meetings in which everybody interrupts everybody and all talk five, ten or a hundred times. And you call that \u2018solving a problem\u2019. When you are in a room and there is silence, you get nervous. You must fill the space with sounds. So you talk compulsorily, even before you know what you are going to say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
White people love to discuss. They don\u2019t even allow the other person to finish a sentence. They always interrupt. For us Indians, this looks like bad manners or even stupidity. If you start talking, I\u2019m not going to interrupt you. I will listen. Maybe I\u2019ll stop listening if I don\u2019t like what you are saying, but I won\u2019t interrupt you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When you finish speaking, I\u2019ll make up my mind about what you said, but I will not tell you I don\u2019t agree unless it is important. Otherwise, I\u2019ll just keep quiet and I\u2019ll go away. You have told me all I need to know. There is no more to be said. But this is not enough for the majority of white people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
People should regard their words as seeds. They should sow them, and then allow them to grow in silence. Our elders taught us that the earth is always talking to us, but we should keep silent in order to hear her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are many voices besides ours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n