But what is happening in India since the last 50 years or so, is that even unrelated people perceived as slightly older than oneself are addressed as uncle/aunt. Those with even a strand of grey hair are addressed grandfather/grandmother (or its regional equivalent.) This started in South India with the influx of Hindi speaking people from the north, who are more at home in Hindi than English.
The semantically correct way of addressing people, used in countries where English is the first language, is by their name, prefixed with Mr./Ms. If the name is not known, Sir/Madam may be used. Addressing elderly strangers as grandpa/grandma is considered as a doubly provocative insult, because they are not biologically related & one is drawing attention to their age, which is extremely bad manners.
It is only to be hoped that the so-called "educated(!)" Indians, start to use words strictly according to their meaning in the dictionary. Addressing people by a non existent biological relationship is an insult rather than an assumption of family ties.
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