Will Americans adopt namaste?

As the meeting ended, I asked the doctor what the health protocols are now about handshakes.  "No more handshakes, and only elbow bumps?"

He didn't even pause to consider the question.  "I don't think I will ever shake hands again.  For 15 months, I haven't even had a cold.  It is because I am not in contact with people."

People have their own preferences.  While I honor his, I am not in agreement.

Social distancing in order to avoid a deathly virus is not the same as social distancing in order to avoid a common cold.  If we take this approach to its logical conclusion, then we can continue with social distancing, work from home, and tele-medicine forever, and such a bubble existence will help us avoid any contagious disease however minor or deadly it is, right?

As much a gregarious hermit I am, the bubble doesn't appeal to me.  It completely redefines what it means to be human.

I hope that in this case, too, public memory will be short.  After a few months, or a couple of years, we will return to handshakes and hugs like we used to before the pandemic upended our ways of life.

Now, it is not that I am a huge fan of hugs.  I have learnt to accept them as a part of life, as much as my balding head is something I need to live with ;)

I grew up in a culture in which there seemed to be lots of emphasis on not touching the other person.  A culture in which there were no handshakes or hugs, particularly across the genders. In the culture in which I grew up, relationships were non-contact sports.  As kids, we might have clung on to grandmothers or uncles, but as grown ups we maintained our distances.  A handshake between men was the most we ever got to in terms of bodily contact to express anything.

I often joked, after a few years of living in the US, that it was because we lived in hot and humid conditions and that the last thing we wanted was the other person's stinky sweat!  Even as a kid, I always sweated more than the rest.  My grandmother often commented that I was like a உப்பு சட்டி (salt container) that was always a tad moist.  (The finely powdered "table salt" was not around during my formative years.  Chunks of sea salt were stored in ceramic containers on which condensation was not unusual.) 

After the pandemic ends, or at least eases, I will pay a visit to the old country, and meet face to face with my relatives and friends.  The older folk won't hug.  We will sit apart, and inquire about each others lives.  It will be a touching visit.