Namaste is the new Hello! Emmanuel Macron welcomes Angela Merkel in Desi way

The novel coronavirus has changed our lifestyle 360 degrees including our greeting habits. More people, especially world leaders are opting for the Indian greeting way of "Namaste" to greet each other rather than going for a handshake. From US President Donald Trump to Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, all world is taking the namaste route to welcome each other. And the recent one to join the club is German Chancellor Angela Merkel and France President Emmanuel Macron who greeted each other with a ‘namaste’.

 

 

Macron welcomed Merkel for her first-ever visit to the presidential summer residence in with a namaste, palms pressed together and bending at the waist, in observance of social-distancing guidelines against coronavirus spread. The German Chancellor reciprocated as she too switched to namaste. They met to discuss a long list of burning issues including the coronavirus pandemic, post-election unrest in Belarus, and growing tensions with Turkey. The video of them adopting the Indian style of greeting has gone viral.

 

 

This is not the first time Macron has used the Namaste greeting. Earlier he folded his palms in the traditional Indian manner and bowed slightly while greeting Spain’s King Felipe and Queen Letizia at the Elysee Palace in Paris in early March.

 

 

Earlier, videos of Trump, Prince Charles opting for the Indian namaste at global forums had gone viral on social media. Before him, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had urged his countrymen to use the namaste instead of a handshake or other physical contact in the form of greeting people to prevent the virus' spread. He had also demonstrated the namaste gesture for people.

 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had promoted the Namaste and said that the world was increasingly adopting the no-contact way of greeting.