Being a girl born and brought up in an Indian joint family, I have always been taught to be respectful towards elders, kind with youngers and polite to everyone. Magic words ‘Sorry’, ‘Please’, ‘Thank you’, etc. used to be at the tip of my tongue. I was taught by my mother and teachers to greet people when I meet them and to respond to them whenever they talk to me. I remember, on many occasions when there were visitors at my home, I wanted to avoid meeting and talking to them but had to respond to their usual questions because it was a part of communication etiquettes. The only people I was not supposed to talk to or respond to were strangers or the ones who according to my parents were bad people. Talking to family and friends was never exhausting or forced. Letters and greeting cards were never enough to quench our thirst of getting in touch with our distant loved ones. Making those short duration calls once in a while from landline during my childhood was nothing le...