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Do you what it means if ……

… a person touches other people's feet? Bowing in front of someone and touching someone's feet is a sign of utmost respect. Since feet are considered as the most unclean part of the body, the closest to the earth, this gesture shows that if someone bows, even this part of the body is being respected. Often the hand, which first touched the other person's feet, will be brought to the heart afterwards. Afterwards the older and higher ranked person gives their blessings. If the person who is going to be touched on their feet doesn't wish so, she/he will be stopped in doing so by the person. This is seen very often in the movies usually done by children to their parents or the wife to the husband.

… someone touches his ear? It's a way of saying "sorry". A person regrets having done something wrong.

… someone presses together his palms? That's done by Hindus and is their form of greeting. Afterwards you greet by saying "Namaste" (greetings). For the Sikhs it would be the same but in this case the proper way of saying it would be "Sat Sri Akal".

… women bear a red dot between their eyebrows? It is called "bindi" and derives from Sanskrit and means "dot". It is applied between both eye brows, there where the third eye (ajna chakra) is. In some parts of India it symbolizes that a woman is married. Nowadays many women apply it for fashion reason.

… women sometimes circle silver tablets with lamps on it? This gesture can be applied in two situations: you honour a god or a guest. In the "aarti" ceremony the women of the house offers a goodess/god sweets on a tablet. After some circle movements around the face of the statue the sweets will be eaten. This is very practical since the sweets are now considered as holy. If the same gesture is done in front of a person, you honour her/him and equals to the position of god. This is seen for example in Mohabbatein (Aishwarya Raj/Amitabh Bachchan) but also in many other movies.

... why do women have a red line on their parting? While in western countries a ring on someone's hand signals that the women is married in India it is this broad red line on the parting that newly weds are bearing. The husband is bearing the same towards the end of the wedding ceremony. In this case the colour red is used one the one hand because red is a holy colour and on the other hand the shining head jewelry will be applied with a substance that is called "sindur" or "vermillion" which will also be used for many other rituals beyond hindu wedding ceremonies. There are different meanings for this, one of it is that it mixes the bride's and groom's blood. If a women becomes a widow she doesn't bear the red line anymore.