WHAT IS IN A HANDSHAKE?

WHAT IS IN A HANDSHAKE?

 

A lot. It is said that Handshake determines the personality. A firm handshake is the sign of confidence. Confidence is one thing, but having to tackle knuckle-breaking handshake is quite another. Shaking hands is the most common sight. And a common act. It can be funny and embarrassing, like when you hold out your hand for a handshake for an eternity and not finding a hand to shake. Sheepishly, you find your hand sliding in to your side pocket, or a hip pocket, or you put up an act for the onlookers that you were in fact about to run your fingers through your muffled hair. Hair rising act! If you think shaking hands is an act of not more than three seconds, you are wrong. All of us have seen how the handshake lasts forever whenever two diplomats from two countries meet, neither willing to withdraw.  It is a very simple exercise. You do it on impulse. The moment you meet a friend or a colleague, you find your hands extended involuntarily. The thumb up, slightly bent, the four fingers slightly arched reaching out to find the opposite hand held in similar fashion, with both being clasped together in a very relaxed manner just about sums up the complete act of a handshake. It is supposed to be a very pleasant task. Very often, it turns out to be the most unpleasant task. There are occasions when you are forced to bear with an exaggerated version where your hand is jerked up to your chest and down to your knees several times, leaving you wringing your hands out of sight, of course. Then there is this version where you have to stretch out your hand so far forward that you are in fact dragging the other’s hand because it is held so close to his body. Maybe, you can call it the reluctant variety. There is one more: where only four fingers are offered in a very rigid manner, barely allowing the other to touch them. They probably reckon that it is a health hazard. If you think handshake is the universal form of greeting, you are wrong again. Some greet with both their palms closed together and held against their chest. You need to be culturally connected to know who follows which form of greeting. Otherwise, you will find yourself wronghanded as when you hold out your hand in anticipation while you find the Namaste (hands-against-chest) form. By the time you retract your hand and attempt the other form, you are too late, because the other person has already finished his form of greeting. Any form of greeting, be it the handshake or the Namaste, can be effective only when they are done simultaneously. Otherwise, there will be total chaos. Imagine extending your arm and finding Namaste and doing Namaste and finding an extended arm! So you have seen it all – from a firm and a relaxed handshake to a knuckle-breaking one, from a reluctant one to a rigid type. Well, the most ideal would be the one which is firm but not knuckle breaking, relaxed but not reluctant. Make your choice. Nobody would now dare ask: what is in a handshake?