Over the years, I have had the pleasure of a close association with several scientists from the National Institute of Hydrology, in India. One of the things that caught my attention early on was the peculiar way in the people from India move their head from side to side to express agreement [Moving the head from side to side means "no" in most Western countries].

One day, after I had repeated something three times and had gotten three side-to-side head motions, I finally realized that that was their way of saying "yes." It was a lesson in culture that I would not forget.

Messieurs Shetty, Venkatesh, Srinivas, and Mishra, from the National Institute of Hydrology, Hard Rock Regional Centre, Belgaum, Karnataka, India, during visit of January 1992.