India, July 18 -- There was a time when I would fill a room with words, flitting from thought to thought like a humming bird drawn to petunias, wings aflutter, scattering them with flourish to whoever cared to listen. But lately, I find myself inhabiting silences more often: indulging in long pauses, lingering stillness and a shrinking desire to converse unless there's real purpose to it. It isn't loneliness. It isn't fatigue. It's something I haven't yet fully named.
I now observe how many people in my circles belong to the silent society, wearing the mantle of soft hush with ease, even amid surrounding cacophony. They are neither provoked nor inspired to break their carefully constructed calms just to please people or to prove their poin...