Maidenhead woman publishes light-hearted books about etiquette in England and India

Light-hearted books looking at etiquette in England and India are raising money for charity.

All profits raised from Giyani Mahajan’s Etiquetting England and Etiquetting India will go to the non-governmental organisation Narayan Seva Sansthan, which rehabilitates disabled people from underprivileged backgrounds in the Asian country.

The idea for the short books was sparked when, on a car journey, Giyani, from Maidenhead, was waiting to turn right and no one would let her in despite the fact they were queuing in traffic.

She said: “It seemed like everyone had this same experience on a daily basis, it’s part of daily life.”

After listing other examples of bad etiquette with her sister, Giyani began typing them into her laptop and before she knew it had almost written a short book. That was in 2017.

Then in December last year she wrote Etiquetting India.

The books are far from a critique of either country or the people in them.

For Giyani, England is home and India is the country she says ‘paved the path for my spiritual journey’.

Giyani said: “I am very proud and privileged to have been raised in Britain and very blessed and grateful to have Indian ethnicity.”

As well as looking at etiquette with humour, the teacher of meditation and healing also views it from a spiritual perspective. She defines being ‘etiquetted’ as ‘an offering and expression of your common sense, decency, kindness and humility’.

Giyani explained how bad etiquette depletes people’s ‘energy’ leading to feelings of annoyance.

“It can also lead to people giving up on expressing their own good etiquette when they begin to think ‘no one else bothers, so why should I?’,” she said.

In contrast, receiving good etiquette lifts people’s sprits, puts them in a good mood and inclines them to ‘share it with others’, she said.

Giyani’s top tips are ‘to use etiquette wherever an opportunity presents itself’ and ‘not to be unequitted whenever an opportunity presents itself’.

Both books are available as ebooks on Amazon, priced at £1.99.

To find out more about Giyani and also to read her spiritual quotes search for Giyani Ji on Facebook.