Khakêk asa cheddo, sôdta sogllo vaddo

A number of proverbs portray certain interesting and unexpected, yet not too rare, natural phenomena. Khakêk asa cheddo, sôdta sogllo vaddo

is one such.

Khak (fem.) is an armpit — khakêk being its dative form — and vaddo (masc.) is a section of a village, a sub-village, a neighbourhood or, as it is often known in the west, a (geographical) community in which one lives. Khakêk marunk means to carry something under one’s arm. So Khakêk asa cheddo, Sôdta sogllo vaddo literally means “The boy is under one’s arm, (but) one looks for him in the whole neigbbourhood”. Since it is generally mothers who carry their children under their arms, we can assume that the one who carries, and searches for, the child is the child’s mother.

The English phrase, “under one’s nose”, is often used to express the sense of the above proverb. Situations like the above are a common occurrence in real life, like looking for one’s glasses which one is actually wearing.

Sometimes the word sôdta is replaced by bhonvta,

although sôdta is more appropriate. Bhonvonk is to ramble around and does not include (nor does it preclude) the idea of looking for something or someone.