This book took shape at the International Pragmatics Conference in New Delhi, 2013. The contributors of the book were panellists at the ‘Cultural Keywords in Discourse’ panel organised by the editors. Our panel consisted of Australia- and Scandinavia-based researchers and research students of different cultural backgrounds, and we presented to an audience of mainly Indian researchers. The scene was set for an extraordinarily fruitful and lucid discussion. The day before the conference, fate would have it that half of the book’s authors were hired as extras in a Bollywood movie. All were given roles as Russian diplomats and the scenes were shot at the Imperial Hotel. Becoming Russians in India added to our sense of curiosity and to the mystery of meaning-making that forms our fascination with language and culture.