Few days ago I was in a meeting with one of my colleague when I accidentally stepped on his foot. My practice or the way I have been taught by elders at home is whenever I step on someone, I am supposed to stretch my hands to touch that someone with respect and then touch my heart with a sense of apology.
When I travelled from East to West, I made all efforts to not demonstrate such practices in public especially in front of a non-Indian person. But when I stepped on this colleague who is an Italian – my instinct fooled me to just go by what I have learned as a child. I stretched my hands to touch the person as a token of acknowledgement. And then immediately my sixth sense woke me from my eastern culture and I just pulled my hands back.
But, Guess what happened. The damage is already there. For sometime my Italian friend was quiet; May be he was making his own guesses and then turned around and asked – Was she just punching me !!!
Boy – Did I just get an award – “Team Boxer”
Cheers
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<((>
./|.
Dame's Galaxy 
Team Boxer … i like that 🙂
he he he…Hey.. I do that too. My American Manager once asked me why did I do that.. I explained to him. He just ended with "Interesting:)". In a similar vein, a custom thats both in east and west.. saying "Bless you" when someone sneezes.
ha ha ha ….
Go Goms!