Dear Madam Raji Ram
Can't find words which can adequately express my admiration for you and yours, especially your close family, and faith in the Almighty.
Yes, I have been in USA, UK, Europe, Canada, Australia and other Christianised countries. Have been to their churches, their cemeteries, their basilicas, their cathedrals, their "mother houses", their Assemblies, observed their rites and rituals, read their scriptures, listened to their sermons and orations, their daily catechisms and Bible stories.
But their values are not mine. Though I do observe the advice: oor odu oththu vaazhu, when I am abroad.
Their basic misbeliefs of original sin, mortal sin, venial sin, saviour, resurrection, bodily assumption to heaven, immaculate conception, virgin birth, holy ghosts, holy father without holy mother, buying forgiveness of sin through donations to church and to church fathers, treating everyone else as heathens destined for hell -- none of these appeal to me.
No point disputing that "keeping-door-openers" in USA are acknowledged with thanks. Also that visitors enter our houses with shoes on. Have been to Japan. Even the slightest action is accompanied by a deep bow, and we bow in return.
In India we greet all comers with raised clasped palms, not handshakes. The young stand up when elders enter. We light ghee lamps, not break bottles of champagne, when opening a new office. We garland VIPs, not give them boxes of cigars, or bottles of liquor, and so on. Let us keep it that way.
S Narayanaswamy Iyer