How does indians greet

It is advisable to address people by their title Mr, Mrs, etc. Dates of Significance. Do's and Don'ts. Other Considerations. Business Culture. Indians in Australia. Sign up for free. How to greet saying Namaste? Sign up for a weekly brief collating many news items into one untangled thought delivered straight to your mailbox.

Email address. Next Story Cybercrimes are underreported — half of the adolescent victims never report. Popular on BI. To do otherwise is considered rude not only to them but also to their employers. Sweets, flowers or fruit or something from your country are common gifts. Don't give leather, beef pork or alcohol. People usually don't open their gifts in the presence of giftgivers. Gifts of money with odd numbers are thought to be auspicious.

Hindus believe that giving gifts will make it easier for the soul of the deceased to move onto to the next life after death. Moving into a new house is an occasion worthy of celebrating with a party.

Fire is sacred.. This means guest are never invited into a kitchen and one should never throw anything into a fire. Never enter the kitchen of someone of high caste. If you touch something there you may effectively pollute the entire kitchen and a special cleansing ceremony is required by a Brahmin priest to purify it again. Before that time no food can be prepared there. Even page 3 personalities indulge in this. Similarly spitting and throwing the cigarette stubs out from the balconies of high rise apartments can cause considerable damage to people down below.

More bad habits like belching loudly, gargling after a meal and making odd noises while eating and bathroom habits are common knowledge. Eating customs also vary from place to place, income level to income level, religion to religion and caste to caste. People often sit on the floor when they eat.

Peasant sometimes sit outside when they eat. In Westernized household people are more likely to eat at a table. People wash their hands before a meal in the washroom or from water-filled bowls. A typical meal may include a dozen or more dishes. Different dishes, such as meat, lentils, rice, vegetables and bread, are placed in different bowls and served from a tray called a thalis. With guests, Indians typically offer them lots o food. It is not considered rude to leave food on your plate.

At the end of a meal, guests may be served tea or fruit, which should not be refused. One should at least take a taste. Many Indians don't eat off of plates. Especially is the south they like to eat off a banana leaves. Disposable Pressed-leaf bowls and red clay cups are used throughout rural India, This is done in part to prevent upper castes from touching things that have been touched by lower castes.

India is famous or its esoteric eating restrictions. According to a study in Tamil Nabu, pregnant women are forbidden from eating more than a hundred kinds of food, including meat and eggs, and many kinds of fruits grains and beans. In some places burping is a polite way to indicate that you are finished eating. After the meal is over guests are given a towel and expected to wash up at a sink. After a meal many Indians have paan a sweet betel nut concoction rather than sweets or deserts.

In some places rock sugar or roasted licorice-flavored fennel seeds known as sawaf are offered as a breath freshener. Eating food with hands is bad enough and presents a revolting sight in foreign circles but licking fingers as chewing bones to suck the marrow looks downright repulsive. Eating with hands and licking fingers involves eating not only the food but everything that was on the hands before the meal. This practice should be stopped and the change should percolate from top.

The Media especially the cinema must show even the lower middle class heroes and heroines eating using cutlery. Similarly all the TV serials must compulsorily show the affluent and middle class people eating only with the help of the cutlery. The masses will imitate and get into the habit. When Indians invite guests to a meal, they usually invite them to their home rather than go out to a restaurant.

It is considered an insult to the guests and the wife to go out. Guest often arrive at around but don't begin eating until after pm. In some places, particularly in the south, guests are invited for lunch because that is the main meal of the day.

If someone invites you too meal or to their house it is considered rude to turn them down. At some homes a guest is served while everyone else sits around and watches.

Often the men eat first, with women and foreign guests being included among them, while the women serve them. At dinner parties, dishes are served by the host or hostess or servants. It is considered rude to help yourself. Muslims often eat communally from the same bowl or plate.

If someone invites you to dinner at a restaurant they generally pay. You are expected to return the gesture if someone invites to their home or out to a restaurant. Westerners are often offered forks, spoons and knives. When Indians eat with Western utensils they usually eat British-style with their spoon in their right hand and fork in their left hand and push food with the fork onto the spoon and eat with their right hand using the spoon.

People use a serving spoon to dish themselves food from serving bowls at the middle of the table. Don't touch the serving spoon to your plate and don't touch the food in the serving bowl with your hand. Also don't eat food off another person's plate.

Pass dishes with your left hand, supporting them with your right hand palm down. Some people also pass things with their right hand. Many Indians eat food with their hands.

Some restaurants don't have any utensils at all to give their patrons. Instead each table comes with a water pitcher that is used to clean the hands after the meal. As a rule, Indians eat with their right hand. The left hand is kept clean and sometimes used for things like holding a glass and passing dishes to others.

When in doubt watch what other people do first and try to avoid a situation in which you need to pass something when you right hand is covered with food from eating. Northern Indians eat with only first two joints of their fingers, not their entire hands.

Southern Indians make sure their sleeves are rolled up and eat with their entire hand. In the north, most meals come with chapatis pancake-like bread that is used to scoop up the food which is usually something that resembles stew.

In the south and to a lesser extent the north too , meals come with rice and a number gravy-like and stewlike dishes in bowls. You mix a little bit of stewlike dish with the rice and make a ball which you then eat. Indians believe that eating with your hands gives you the feel of the food and eating with a spoon or fork adds a metallic taste to the food. Indian cooking teacher Shashi Gandhi said, "Using your fingers—not knives or forks—you can enjoy dining much more.

Brushing beans and tearing off a piece of chapati with your fingers adds to the enjoyment of the meal. In doing so, you are not able to only smell and taste, but also to feel the food. Muslims and Hindus have traditionally used their left "dirty" hand to take care of wiping their dirty butt and other "unclean" bodily functions. As a result, they never eat or touch someone with their left hand.

People always eat with their right hand even if they are left-handed. Sometimes alcohol is offered to guests and consumed. Sometimes it is not. When it is consumed at dinner most drinking takes place before the meal rather during or after it.

When alcohol is not offered tea or coffee is consumed. Drinking customs of defined by Hindu beliefs about pollution. When drinking from a cup one should hold it away from mouth so that liquid flows into the mouth but the lips do not touch the cup. This is done less for health reasons that caste reasons. Upper caste Indians don't want their lips to touch something "polluted" by the lower castes.

In peasant homes guests are often offered a glass of water when they arrive. Plan on several visits before you reach an agreement. You may be offered a sugary, milky tea, coffee or a soft drink. Note that your glass or cup may be refilled as soon as it is emptied.

Indian counterparts may not show up for scheduled meetings. Be prepared to reschedule. Dining and Entertainment Initial business entertainment is done in restaurants in prestigious hotels. Business can be discussed during meals. Allow your host to initiate business conversation. Strict orthodox Muslims don't drink any alcohol. Most Hindus, especially women, do not consume alcohol. Arrive minutes later than the stated time for a dinner party.

At a social gathering a garland of flowers is often placed around a guest's neck. Remove it after a few minutes and carry it in your hand to show humility. Allow hosts to serve you. If hosts eat with hands, assure them you enjoy doing the same. If utensils are not used, use your right hand and your first three fingers and thumb only. Take food from communal dish with a spoon; never your fingers. Use chappati or poori bread torn into small chunks to scoop up food.

The host pays for guests in a restaurant.