What's a God-daughter He Asked Me

We Don't Have Those In India

A kind Indian Sikh friend of mine asked me what my relation to the gorgeous persons pictured below is and I told him "cousins and god-daughters." He then asked to my surprise "What's a God-Daughter?" informing me that "We don't have those in India." I explained that when a child is baptized in the Christian faith as infants they typically get a set of Godparents- or at least one of them. This person is supposed to, if they do their job right, help oversee and instill the faith into the child participating in their upbringing, and they are a safety net should either natural parent die. They are supposed to step up to the plate for assisting to meet practical needs should it be necessary in the event of death of a parent. In my case, that actually happened because these girls lost their Dad tragically to lung cancer when he was only 43. Luckily the family was collectively well off enough that no one was thrust into poverty and the only visible decline in lifestyle was that a huge house in Potomac was downsized into a three story townhouse close by (theirs not mine).

"We have lots of kids on the streets in India who don't have both parents" my friend advised me. "I want to learn about this tradition." He thought it might help in India. He wants to take it back to India. We can export a lot of great things of religious significance if explained in a certain way. I am not the best in your face proselytizer-I have a strong distaste for shoving religion down anyone's throat, can't stand it when anyone comes across "holier than thou" (whenever I am guilty of it feel free to punch me in the nose) and I loathe crusade style religious imposition of any kind at the end of a gun (totally counter-productive)- but Christianity has some very wonderful earthly manifestations in terms of caring for our fellows and particularly children that does and should appeal everywhere. No one could resist it. Everyone will want to know about it if we do our jobs right. Talk is Cheap- Good Works can win the world.