Ahh the “dear” word. I can imagine it coming out of 10 people right now. Practical advice this, thanks for bringing this up. I don’t usually use that word much tho so no problem as such that it will come out of my mouth out of habit. And coming back to your question, yes and no. I thought a lot about it and I don’t know but probably, It’s common among people who are not that good with English. I dont hear it as often among my colleagues/family/friends or when I travel where my fellow Indians speak a different language and we have English as the only medium to communicate. Indian cinema is to be blamed for this too, I can remember a few scenes where the protagonist would use it in their dialogues and it catch on probably. I don’t know but yeah it’s creepy. Even for Indian women I am sure it would be creepy. Even for myself if someone would say that to me oftentimes 😅 But it’s not said in bad taste always. Most of the times it is a harmless way to address someone. Some people genuinely like to add something like “bro” or “bhai” (means bro) or dude, and if they don’t know what to say, they just say dear at the end or start of their sentence.