Would have preferred that the “Namaste’ be adopted globally in happier cirumstances (not as the result of a pandemi… https://t.co/1D9te9Jva1 — anand mahindra (@anandmahindra) 1581846189000

NEW DELHI: As India welcomes US President Donald Trump and a high-level delegation, including First Lady Melania Trump , the president's daughter Ivanka Trump and son-in-law Jared Kushner , the focus is on the ‘ Namaste Trump ’ event in Ahmedabad.The ‘Namaste Trump’ event, with Trump and Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the centre of attraction, takes place at the newly-built Motera cricket stadium, the world’s largest, on February 24. The event is on lines of ‘Howdy, Modi!’ event, organised by Indian-Americans when PM Modi visited Houston in the US in September last year.'Namaste Trump' takes place at a time when China is plagued with the deadly coronavirus , a disease that is spreading to other parts of the world. So far, more than 2,600 people have died and over 76,000 have been infected globally.In this context, there is a fervent appeal to use the event to promote ‘namaste’ (the Indian style of greeting) to help check not just coronavirus but other flus that are spread through people-to-people contact.‘Namaste’ is a Hindi word used to greet someone with folded hands and can be loosely translated as‘hello’. ‘Howdy’ means ‘how do you do”,Cardiologist Dr KK Aggarwal, former president of Indian Medical Association (IMA), wrote a letter to PM Modi about 10 days ago requesting him to replace ‘Namaste Trump’ with ‘ Corona Namaste ’. He is still waiting for a reply.Talking to TOI, Dr Aggarwal said, “I wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi linking ‘Namaste Trump’ to coronavirus. I have requested to call POTUS’s visit ‘Corona Namaste’ instead of ‘Namaste Trump’.”He said while ‘Namaste Trump’ has a Hindu overtone, ‘Corona Namaste’ is secular and it involves everybody.He said, “By adopting ‘Corona Namaste’ instead of handshake, 30 per cent to 40 per cent chances of contracting coronavirus would be prevented. If you do not shake hands, you prevent coronavirus, including flu such as swine flu, and respiratory diseases. India and the US can jointly appeal to the world to adopt Corona Namaste.”Dr Aggarwal is of the view that Corona Namaste should become a permanent feature and should be popularised as a household brand. This will keep away flu. Corona Namaste has the potential to minimise the spread of coronavirus globally, he said.He said, “Corona Namaste will always remain relevant because all deadly viruses, such as Sars and Mers in the past, would always be from coronavirus. There are seven forms of coronavirus. Covid is specific because it is one of the coronaviruses.”Anand Mahindra, chairman, Mahindra Group, has also advocated adoption of ‘namaste’ instead of handshake.In a tweet posted on February 16, Anand Mahindra said, “Would have preferred that the ‘Namaste’ be adopted globally in happier circumstances (not as the result of a pandemic!) but oh well… This clearly proves that our ancient Indian ancestors had real common sense when creating our customs!”He also tagged a card along with his post which said, ‘time to introduce 'namaste' globally’. According to it, while a handshake transfers 124 million bacterial colony, 'high 5' transfers 55 million bacterial colony and a 'first bump' transfers 7 million bacterial colony, there is zero bacterial transfer through a 'namaste'.