In a June 1999 interview, British writer and Nobel laureate Doris Lessing (1919–2013) reminisces about a Shanghai visit during which she had this experience: One evening I heard a Chinese family singing “Happy Birthday.” It was weird. You would have thought that they would have their own happy birthday song. Every dominant society in the …

I was listening to a lecture of a Sheikh who said that it is required to return the greeting to whoever gives it.