the story of 'the paradox'

I really liked this scroll that had a message by the Dalai Lama titled 'The Paradox of Our Age'. So the expat Tibetan woman seller was a little confused. What is the meaning of paradox, she asked. My friend and I looked at each other. 'Irony,'I chipped in quite unhelpfully. How do you explain paradox in Hindi. As we struggled with all our Hindi vocabulary to get at the meaning of this really difficult word( I mean check Wikipedia, you would think quantum physics is that makes the word paradox seem like quantum physics. After a lot of hemming and circumlocutory explanations, she finally nodded in understanding.