Healthy Greetings!

How do you greet someone?

Today, I will talk about the most healthy and dignified way of greeting someone. But first let me go through some common forms of greeting.

The first one that comes to mind is shaking hands. I say this is the most unhealthy form of greeting. The other day I ran away from an approaching hand straight from a washroom. It is anyone's guess what an oncoming hand may contain!


There are hands that shake you like a bull terrier and just won't let go. Beware of the hand that grip you and squeeze you like a stress ball. I recently met a hand that was so limp that it fell from my grip and I had to go down on all fours and search for it.

Then there are sweaty palms. The moment you grasp it you look around for a radiator or an oven to stretch it over and dry. The nervous hand never lets you hold it fully. It jumps around like a fish out of water. The list goes on.

Another form of greeting is rubbing cheeks. When I was young I thought hugs and kisses happened only in movies and books. So when this Middle Eastern man, to whom I was introduced, sprang up from his seat and touched his cheek to mine, I cringed. I didn't know what to make of it. Then he did it two more times! I realized later that some people do it twice. Yet others do it just once. I get the feeling it depends on whether I shaved or not.

I belong to the school that advocates 'when you want to do something do it well'. What I really like is a bear hug. A big bone-crushing hug. I need to feel it for a couple of hours after that. None of those silly cheek-scratching business.

Then there are the casual smiles, smirks, nods, and greeting with "Hey", or "Yo". The most disgusting of all greetings is, "How do you do?" They casually throw it a you in the elevator, the corridor, or the parking lot. Then they walk away.

I thought they asked a question. Don't they expect an answer? When you answer them with your life's history, what my mother-in-law did to my dinner last night, or how stressed I am after seeing American Idol last night, their face takes on a confused look. I am so deep in detailing my anguish that I fail to notice their faces. So I rattle on...

Let me now get to the point. The best form of greeting that I would advocate is Namaste. The word has its origin in sanskrit. Namaste is formed by two words, namas and te. Namas, means, to bow and te means, to you. Taken literally, it means, I bow to you. This is how one greets someone in the Hindu culture.

I will now demonstrate Namaste, the healty way of greeting! It is simple. You only touch yourself. You get to bow slightly and you can smile from one ear to the other. You can close your eyes or keep it open. The palms of each hand touch each other with the fingers pointing up and in front of the chest. One can bow slightly and say "Namaste" or one can greet wordlessly as well.

So how do you greet someone? Namaste! If you are a true Canadian you can even make it Namst eh!