Only men the same age will occasionally address each other by first name. A Hindu wife never speaks the name of her husband. A dancer or a musician touches the feet of his or her teacher before each lesson. Children prostrate and touch the feet of their mother and father at special times, such as New Year's day, birthdays and before parting for a journey. Purity Cleanliness in Western culture tends to be thought of almost entirely as a physical issue.
Eastern culture regards purity as more than just physical.
Something may be perfectly clean, yet be impure or polluted by thoughts of another or by undesirable vibrations. Here are several ways purity is preserved in Hindu culture. Food is central to the concept of purity, for the nature of one's nourishment deeply affects one's physical, mental and emotional nature. In a marketplace, one does not touch food they don't intend to buy. One cooking food for others would never taste of the dish from a spoon and then put the spoon back in the pot.