The deadly pause

I am trying to find a solution to the silence that occurs during a conversation between people. Generally when close friends talk , there is no obvious pause but let's say you are talking to one of your extended relations in some function or even when they suddenly drop in to ur home... Eventually there is an obvious pause in the conversation neither of us knows how to continue the talking ????

Is this kind of situation common in India ?? It is so discomforting when such a silence occurs .. I mean the other person doesn't know if it's the end of the conversation and neither do we. And each one doesn't want to offend the other by stopping the talking.
It's a vicious cycle wherein I would think that it's over and wait for him/her to say his goodbye .. But suddenly after bout a minute he/she will try to talk about some subject. I experience this when I talk to distant relationships or when I talk to new people whom I wud probably never meet again.

But this is were the "Kadalai" ( one of the most stupidest terms I learnt in college which means a guy & girl talking bout all & sundry ... I mean what's wrong in trying to prolong a conversation with a girl huh ... Einstein himself has said that when u talk for an hour with a beautiful girl it wud seem like just 5 mins) experience pays off. Anyway during such conversations the guy & girl will think of a whole range of topics & the goodbye itself wud last 15 minutes ;-)...But it is definitely not the same with a conversation with a new person right !!...

Anyway I am just rambling.. I definitely don't have the answer on how to avoid that gap in a conversation. Anybody out there has an answer ???????