In a 2014 Brooke Bond Red Label tea film by Ogilvy India, a Hindu couple is locked out of their apartment. Their neighbor, a woman in a burqa, invites them in for tea. The husband first declines. Then the smell of tea wins him over, and they go in.
The film ends with the line Swad Apnepan Ka, the taste of togetherness. The brand has used it in many campaigns since.
Air India’s mascot, the Maharaja, “made his grand appearance as the iconic mascot of Air India in 1946.” He was the idea of Bobby Kooka, the airline’s commercial director, and was drawn by Umesh Rao of the J. Walter Thompson agency.
Air India says that he stands for “impeccable hospitality and service standards.”
After Diwali, some trade associations hold a Sneh Milan, a get-together. On November 2, 2024, the Wholesale Grain and Seeds Merchants Association of Nagpur held its Diwali Sneh Milan with guests from other trade groups.
In 2025 the Steel and Hardware Chamber of Vidarbha invited “all members and their families” to its family Sneh Milan. Its purpose, The Hitavada reported, was to “strengthen the spirit of unity and togetherness.”
In the Shanti Parva of the Mahabharata, Bhishma teaches: Arāvapy ucitaṃ kāryam ātithyaṃ gṛham āgate. Chettum apy āgate chāyāṃ nopasaṃharate drumaḥ.
Hospitality must be shown even to an enemy who comes to one’s house. A tree does not withdraw its shade even from the one who comes to cut it down.
Mehmaan-navaazii. “Hospitality, care to the guest,” in the Rekhta dictionary. Under a variant spelling, its Hindi meanings include atithi-puja, worship of the guest.
Huqqa-paanii pilaanaa. To offer the hookah and water. The dictionary translates it as “being overly hospitable to” and explains it as khaatir madaarat karnaa, aao bhagat karnaa, to attend to someone and welcome them warmly.
On October 11, 2019, Prime Minister Narendra Modi received President Xi Jinping at Mamallapuram, near Chennai, for an informal summit. Modi wore a veshti, the Tamil dhoti, with an angavastram over his shoulder. He showed Xi the temples by the shore, and the two leaders stopped for fresh coconut water.
In the evening they watched Kathakali and Bharatanatyam at the Shore Temple. Dinner was South Indian: thakkali rasam, arachavitta sambar, kadalai kuruma and kavanarasi halwa.
On April 27 and 28, 2018, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping met in Wuhan for an informal summit. There was no agenda and no joint statement. The two leaders walked along East Lake, rode a houseboat and talked over tea. China’s ambassador to India said they spent nine hours together.
The talks between the delegations “went well beyond the budgeted time,” said India’s Foreign Secretary, Vijay Gokhale.
In Rajasthan, a host presses food on a guest again and again. The custom is called manvar, from the Marwari word for “to request.”
Guests know the rules. “It is customary to decline what you are offered – the first time,” a report from Udaipur notes.