Donald Trump, Prince Charles Adopts ‘Namaste’ amid Coronavirus Scare

The traditional Indian way of greeting ‘Namaste’ is growing popular amid the worldwide scare of Coronavirus infection. US President Donald Trump and visiting Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar recently greeted each other with ‘Namaste’ at the White House. On the other hand, Prince Charles was seen greeting people with a ‘Namaste’ at the annual Prince’s Trust Awards at the London Palladium.

On Thursday, when US President Donald Trump met visiting Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar, who is of Indian-origin, both of them joined their palms in the ‘Namaste’ to greet each other before the media in his Oval office.

President Trump later told Media in the Oval Office of the White House, “We did not shake hands today. We looked at each other and said what we are going to do. You know, sort of a weird feeling”.

When a Journalist asked Varadkar about the greetings, he joined his hands in ‘Namaste’, showing the reporters how he greeted the President. Trump too joined him with the ‘Namaste’ pose.

In quick succession, Trump also showed reporters how to pose ‘Namaste’, while he said, “I just got back from India. And I did not shake any hands there. And it is very easy because they go like this”.

Trump also showed the Japanese way of greeting by bowing of the head. He also remarked, “They (India and Japan) were ahead of the curve,” as he said ‘bowing’ and ‘Namaste’ gives him a strange feeling.

President Trump further said, “I have never been a big hand-shaker, you probably heard. But once you become a politician, shaking hands is very normal. It is a very strange feeling when people walk up and say ‘hi’”.

Meanwhile, Varadkar also told Media, “It almost feels impersonal or feels like you are being rude, but we just can’t afford to think like that for the next few weeks”.

Meanwhile, in Britain, 71-year-old Prince Charles is seen greetings people with ‘Namaste’ during the annual Prince’s Trust Awards, which was held recently at the London Palladium. 

Parveen Kaswan, an IFS officer, posted the video on his Twitter handle with the caption, “Namaste... See we Indians told to do this to the world many many years ago. Now just a class on how to do Namaste properly.” In no time the video went viral on social media, leaving Internet users impressed.

One user reshared the video with a post, which read, “After Yoga, Namaste would be the biggest export. Now experts will dive in and create various flavors of authentic Namaskar to suit their international clients”.