What's your threshold?

We all have habits that tell a story: rules for what we wear, how we greet each other, how we worship. These norms do quietly evolve over time. Which ones will you hold on to?

- Charles Assisi

What people see as shoes outside the door, I see as an x-ray of personality.

Some families have their footwear lined up ina neat row, like soldiers mid-drill. Others have shoes sprawled across the corridor, like a merry bunch that has had too much to drink. No cabinet ever seems to hold them all. Even the most respectable shoe rack stands bashfully, tenants spilling out into the passage.

In my home, scattered shoes make me twitchy. As for visitors who walk in with footwear on, that’s enough to move me into Cranky mode. Most Indians don't need to be asked. We shed shoes at the threshold almost instinctively, asa sign of respect for the line that separates outside and inside.

Family lore has it my cousins and I inherited this fussiness from our maternal grandfather, who in many ways was the gold standard for cranky. The lamp at the entrance of the home had to be lit before dusk. Everyone had to bathe twice a day.