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Hemang Desai 233conventional societal addresses specific to rural culture like bāpā,bāplā, bun, mādi etc. which are emotionally charged termsconveying sentiments of esteem, dignity, intimacy towards theperson addressed. Translating them with ‘mother’, ‘sister’, ‘brother’and ‘father’ would have robbed them of their emotional exuberance.Apart from these, traditional kinship terms and conventionalstereotypes prove to be untranslatable because of their beingextremely culture-specific. In the poem ‘Chal’ the gopi sings,Empty out your pitchers though full of waterDon’t heed sāsu’s injunctionsHere the replacement of sāsu with ‘mother-in-law’ wouldstrip the term of the connotation it has in the Bhakti literary traditionof the mother-in-law being a severe taskmaster who, in collusionwith her daughter, the nanand, the sister-in-law, keeps a strict vigilover the activities of her daughter-in-law, the gopi. Thus, sāsu andnanand represent oppressive stereotypes in the Indian familialsystem. Allegorically they connote the social norms and constrictingdictates of the mundane world, which hamper the spiritual growth ofa devotee. In the same way, kinship terms like bhābhi ‘brother’swife’ or ‘wife of the husband’s elder brother’ and vahu ‘daughter-inlaw’are loaded terms. In India, bhābhi and nanand share a playful,lively and good-humored relationship. Both of them, ifapproximately of the same age, are not just legally bonded relationsbut intimate friends so much so that a nanand divulges to her bhābhiall her secrets and the issues which she hesitates to discuss with hermother. If the age difference between them is great, bhābhi becomesa motherly figure to the young nanand apart from being a friend. Inthe story Kholki, the father-in-law calls out for his vahu, to bringwater for guests. Here the word ‘daughter-in-law’ would havesounded too formal and drab as it fails to convey the feeling of theawe, respect and security on the part of the vahu and a distant andyet fatherly attitude on the part of the father-in-law that characterizetheir relationship. This becomes manifest in the story Māne Khole,