Bhai-Ben？A Hindu word to explain.

people add suffixes to their names based on their gender. "Bhai/kumar/lal" (brother) for men and "Ben/Bahen" (sister) for woman.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_name

Bhai = Brother
Ben/Behen = Sister

These are Hindi words, Nancy. It's common practice in India to call strangers by those common nouns.

For example: If a man visits a general store to buy a packet of cigarettes, he is quite likely to begin his conversation with the shopkeeper something like this:

"Bhai, got a cigarette pack?"