It's an Asian thing.When you're talking to an older person, any older person even if you just met them you call them uncle or aunty, or if they're not that old you refer to them as brother/sister, as a mark of respect.
Not keeping to that rule is seen as extremely rude. We also never use the words him/her/she/he/you when referring to an older person, that's also considered rude.

I am American. When I was growing up I called close friends of the family aunt and uncle.

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Even when they are only ten years older than you and not even Indian!
(I was called Aunty by a fifteen year old when I visited India with my Indian-born husband!!! And I was only 26!)

most of the younger indian generation calls their non-related elders by aunty and uncle. even if you've never met them :]

I was told that slave children called older slaves uncle and aunt even if they weren't blood relatives. If they were sold very young, the children might never have known, or only barely remembered, their real parents. "Aunts" and "uncles" were the closest thing to parental figures they had.
I guess that explains Uncle Ben and Aunt Jemima.

Yeah, I have loads of Auntys and Uncles that arn't related to me.
So do a quite a few of my friends.
and I'm very English
xxx

I don't think its just an asian thingI'm a caucasian american and I know plenty of people that refer to close friends of their parents as aunt or uncle. I personally am referred to as Uncle by many of my friends children.

Nigerian kids do it, too. As far as I know, amongst Igbos, we use "aunt" and "uncle" as respect towards our parents' closest friends and (indeterminately blood-related) relatives it's the best translation for "daa" and "dee" (a term towards our elders, who tend to be older siblings and/or cousins, parents' friends, or just older people in general) in the English language that my mom and others have come up with. Many of the friends Mom grew up with came from the same village or compound, so they all might be really related anyways, for all she knows. That's how it was when I was a kid growing up in the '90s things might be a little different now (not necessarily liberal or conservative, but different), but not by much.
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its not only sikh people, its the whole asian population as a whole. we respect our elders by not calling our elders by their name but by calling them either aunty or uncle even if they are not related in any way.
Yep, that's pretty much it. It's also a good cover-up if you forget their name, you can just say "Auntiji" or "Uncle".it works. =]

yes and its not only sikh people, its the whole asian population as a whole. we respect our elders by not calling our elders by their name but by calling them either aunty or uncle even if they are not related in any way.
its just a mark or respect-something which is sadly missing with children these days

Yeah, once upon a time, young people showed respect for older people.

Tony and Jess aren't related. Tony calls Jess's parents Uncle and Auntie as a mark of fond respect, not because they are related. It's fairly common in the Sikh community as far as I'm aware.
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