With the number of coronavirus cases rising in the UK, Prince Charles seems to have shifted to an Indian way of greeting people while ditching physical contact.
A video of the 71-year-old greeting people with an Indian-style “namaste” has gone viral on social media, creating a flutter among Indian netizens.
“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’,” tweeted Indian Forest Service officer Parveen Kaswan while sharing the video of Charles at the Commonwealth Service at Westminster Abbey.
Namaste 🙏🏻 🙏🏻
— Parveen Kaswan, IFS (@ParveenKaswan) March 12, 2020
See we Indians told to do this to world many many years ago. Now just a class on ‘how to do namaste properly’. #CoronaVirus pic.twitter.com/P1bToirPin
Namaste 🙏🏻 🙏🏻
— Parveen Kaswan, IFS (@ParveenKaswan) March 12, 2020
See we Indians told to do this to world many many years ago. Now just a class on ‘how to do namaste properly’. #CoronaVirus pic.twitter.com/P1bToirPin
He is not the first one to advocate the advantages of namaste as a greeting. French President Emmanuel Macron recently greeted Spain royals with folded hands, ditching the peck on the cheeks that is customary in France. According to the Ambassador of France to India, Mr Macron has decided to now greet everyone with this "graceful gesture".
Président Macron has decided to greet all his counterparts with a namaste, a graceful gesture that he has retained from his India visit in 2018 pic.twitter.com/OksoKjW7V8
— Emmanuel Lenain (@FranceinIndia) March 11, 2020
Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also advised citizens to opt for namaste earlier this month. "Just avoid shaking hands as I do. You can try to implement the Indian system of Namaste or say another word like shalom, but find a way, any way of not shaking hands," Mr Netanyahu said.
Netanyahu announcing Israel's new extreme measures against #corona. Orders Israelis to stop shaking hands, suggests following Indian custom of namaste instead. 🙏🏽 pic.twitter.com/8dGZUUtwEU
— Noga Tarnopolsky (@NTarnopolsky) March 4, 2020
Of late I am being told by lots of people to keep washing hands to prevent any kind of infection. I do that in any case. But also want to suggest the age old Indian way of greeting people called #Namaste. It is hygienic, friendly & centres your energies. Try it. 🙏🙏 #caronavirus pic.twitter.com/ix7e6S8Abp
— Anupam Kher (@AnupamPKher) March 3, 2020
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Salman Khan (@beingsalmankhan) on Mar 4, 2020 at 9:12pm PST
Prince Charles is having to switch to ‘Namaste’ as opposed to the usual ‘Hand Shake’ due to the #coronavirus ... Surely it’s better!😉😊🙏pic.twitter.com/9UtCPNOUgd
— Adnan Sami (@AdnanSamiLive) March 11, 2020