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''' HAND ''SHAKES'' HAND ''' :
!WOW!
COVID-19 IS RESPONSIBLE FOR DEATH of the handshake. A human gesture of social connection has become the harbinger of disease. A corona-tainted handshake we are cautioned about can have lethal consequences.
Hindu tradition, if some proto-historians are to be believed, anticipated Covid-19 by inventing the hand-folded namaste as an aseptic form of greeting. To them, it is clean, hygienic, and encourages social distancing.
Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi found it particularly useful when handling [or not having to handle] her minions, in particular Jagjivan Ram, her untouchable Dalit defence minister.
George Bernard Shaw once deflected an overzealous admirer who wished to kiss his hand - the hand that had penned his literature - by telling her that the same hand had done a number of less savoury things.
The modern savant Stephen Fry, in his autobiography, recalls hosting the broadcaster Alastair Cooke at Cambridge.
''When the evening was over Alastair Cooke shook my hand to say goodbye and held it firmly, saying, ''This hand you are shaking once shook the hand of Bertrand Russell'' Fry expressed wonder.
''No, no,'' said Cooke. ''It goes further than that. Bertrand Russel knew Robert Browning. Russel's aunt danced with Napoleon. That is how close we all are to history. Just a few handshakes away. Never forget that.''
Royals are paid to shake hands. It is part of their job description. Persons invited to shake hands with modern royalty are alerted that they should expect only the tips of royal fingers, not the whole hand, to protect the dignitary from bone crushing enthusiasts.
Over time, royals have mastered the skill of shaking hands without causing themselves discomfort. In old news-reels of the Russian monarchy, for example, one sees Czarina Alexandra Feodorovna [wife of Czar Nicholas II] manage a prize distribution to over a hundred schoolchildren.
In a smooth mechanical movement, she held the prize in her palm and, while the recipient kissed the top part of the imperial hand, the czarina dropped the parcel into the child's hands. It was like a bomb being released from a plane's underbelly.
Her once-removed nephew the future King Edward VIII, on a tour of Canada in the 1920s, was required to meet over a thousand guests at a garden party.
He valiantly shook hands with all of them. By evening his hand was so swollen that it had to be put into a sling. Regardless of his condition, though, he was obliged the next day to shake another thousand hands, which he did, with his left hand.
Even within royals, handshakes [or the absence of them] can convey messages. In 1967, at the unveiling of plaque in memory of Queen Mary in Marlborough House, the normally courteous Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother could not bring herself to extend her gloved hand to her estranged sister-in-law the Duchess of Windsor.
They had nor met since the Duke's abdication as King Edward VIII in 1936, a 30-year-old family feud could have been healed with one gesture of reconciliation. Instead it festered until both died.
Perhaps the most absurd example of manual warfare is to be found in the US's relations with communist China.
In 1954, John Foster Dulles [then US secretary of state] refused to shake hands with Zhou Enlai at a conference in Geneva. This deliberate snub became policy with the State Department. Its officials were ordered not to shake hands with their communist Chinese.
To avoid doing so, US diplomats at officials receptions would nurse their drinks in their right hands.
To rectify that earlier slight, US president Richard Nixon made a symbolic gesture of contrition when he landed at Beijing airport in February 1972. He pointedly extended his hand first to the approaching Zhou Enlai.
The Honor and Serving of the Latest Global Operational Research on State of past History and the State of the World, continues. The World Students Society thanks author, F.S. Aijazuddin.
With respectful dedication to Mankind, Leaders, Grandparents, Parents, Students, Professors and Teachers off the world. See Ya all prepare and register for Great Global Elections on The World Students Society : wssciw.blogspot.com and Twitter - !E-WOW! -The Ecosystem 2011 :
''' Folded - Hands - Namaste '''
Good Night and God Bless
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