@Hurray thank you for your comments. Actually I am trying to analyze why did I have that problem if the problem was in me through this article. We, human being, are logical and we also have feelings at the same time. I feel like we are trying to defy both logic and feelings by addressing a complete stranger by saying "Uncle" in the first meeting. My real uncles (dad and mom's brothers or someone I consider as my uncle emotionally) had earned and nurtured the relationships over the years. That's why "Uncle" was not just a word for me, it meant something, something special. And specially at the young age when you are trying to figure out how the world works, and when your parents ask you to address a complete stranger by "uncle", it confuses you. All of sudden you wonder how is he my uncle? what does uncle really mean? I am a married man, and I would like to have kids in the future. I would want my kids to be able to converse freely with everyone without any confusion.

This happened over the weekend. I was visiting my parents, and my mom had her colleague over in the house. Mom's colleague had a son. He was about 9-10 years old. His mom asked the kid to say 'Namaskar uncle' to me. The kid didn't pay attention. She got angry and yelled at him couple of times. He finally said 'namasskar uncle', but everyone in the room could see that he didn't want to say it. He just said it so that his mom would get off of his back. I brought this same discussion with his mom and suggested why can't she let him feel equal to everyone and just let him call me by my name. Her answer was that it is our culture, and she likes to make relationship personal. The thing that amazed me is she didn't even ask her son or me whether we want to make this relationship personal. When they were leaving, I said "Bye Harshal" and stretched my hand. He shook my hand, and my brother showed me how quickly Harshal's mood changed when he was shaking my hand. His face started to glow, and he was attentive. That is what I would like to see in my kids and every kid if I can.

This is why I wrote this article hoping to find some answers. That's why I really encourage you to comment your thoughts, experiences, solutions or stories that you may have. By the way my mom's colleague was Indian, so obviously this is not only our kids who go through this. We spend so much money on our kids education, but why can't we make a little effort to understand psychological and emotional state of our beloved child. In a long run they are more important in success and quality of life of our kid. If we don't help our kids, then who is going to help them understand these things. And the world is just getting more competitive by day. We don't want our kids to fall behind in the race, do we?