The Embrace

“Alingan” is the Hindi synonym for hugging, which our PM Narendra Modi ji had made his personal trademark while he embraced the heads of states over the last four years. This “ashwamedh” of embracement was exclusively reserved for the dignitaries and executed with warmth and camaraderie overflowing between the two most powerful people of their respective nations. This form of welcome or greeting is normally reserved for personnel who have been great friends over the years. It conveys a lot without the need for any verbal communication, although at first some of them ( the dignitaries) appeared surprised but gradually it became a measure of the warmth exuded thus revealing the nature of relationship between the heads of state and naturally their respective nations.

Every society and culture has its unique method of greeting specially the formal one, in India it has been the folding of hands for ‘namaste’ which is the accepted norm internationally . The western method is the hand shake, which too has been adopted by the Orientals and is customary. Some hand shakes have reserved their place in the annals of history, some of you may recall the Yasser Arafat Shimon Peres hand shake at Camp David of 2001 with President Clinton looking on. Similarly some hugs too have history written allover them, one such was the famous Bear hug of PM Indira Gandhi by Fidel Castro in the NAM summit in New Delhi in 1983. The charismatic tall and impressive persona of Castro and the diminutive petite very poised Mrs Gandhi made a memorable picture which defined the relationship between Cuba and India and also the Prima Donna that India was in the NAM then.

So with such a history behind the ‘alingan’ as an embrace is called in Hindi, no wonder PM Modi ji decided to make it his signature style of charm offensive in diplomacy. It has a huge advantage against the hand shake because while the former is more personal and friendly the latter remains highly formal and at times even curt. Today the intensity of the hug is the measure of depth of relations, the recent visit of the Canadian PM was one such occasions, where the embrace was quite cold and not spontaneous.
It was however the famous ‘jadu ki jhappi’ of Munna Bhai which took this to a different almost spiritual level, jhappi is how Punjabis do it. A loud guffaw followed by a very spirited slapping of the backs……. usually followed by more spirits flowing with the tandoori chicken.Greetings are a socio-cultural thing and there are many peculiar greetings which go onto depict an intimacy beyond the mere formality. I recall that in during my stint in the UN peacekeeping in Co’te d’ Ivoire Akwaba was the greeting but more interestingly the embrace was replaced by joining the two heads together.

As Modi ji had embraced almost half the world leaders, our very own Rahul baba was naturally feeling left out so he really can’t be blamed for this episode. After all Modi ji has been very choosy about his “hugmates” if you can call them that…very few Indians have been blessed with this embrace. Rahul baba wanted to be counted amongst the haves…..all his life he has got what he wanted except this unique greeting, so how could he be denied that, what he doesn’t get in the routine he has to snatch it……snatched it he did.
Incidentally the word embrace traces its origin to the French verb “embrasser” which is what Rahul Baba finally ended up doing ….but only the English version…….. embarassed.

Original Comments:

Jatinder Singh Dhillon (2018-08-06):
Great work

KPM Das (2018-08-06):
Amusing take on a photo moment

Unknown (2018-08-06):
Good one Suyash, nice take on the hug

Ajay Gangwar (2018-08-06):
Just as a high five or a hand shake can be left hanging if the other party doesn't play up, this hug also seemed to have been left hanging 🙂

Sunil V Damle (2018-08-06):
Nice – Enjoyed reading it

Unknown (2018-08-06):
Good one sir…

Barjinder Singh (2018-08-06):
This comment has been removed by the author.

Unknown (2018-08-06):
Great writing Sir. Loved reading it.

Unknown (2018-08-06):
सर आलिंगन शब्द अपने आप में इतना ख़ूबसूरत है! आपके इशारे माशाल्लाह!!

Sachu (2018-08-06):
Suyash always knew your writing ✍️ skill but this one is par excellence. It joins humour with political correctness and gives peculiar style to indianness. Enjoyed reading it. Keep blogging 😊

apcom (2018-08-06):
Good one. Interesting and enjoyed from beginning till end. Expecting more such articles from you.

Yo (2018-08-06):
Very well expressed
Awesome

Satish Mallik (2018-08-06):
The word “aalingan” sounds so amorous. It would have been interesting to read some Hindi newspaper headlines to say “राहुल ने मोदी जी को अपने आलिंगनपाश में बाँध लिया” or “समूचे सदन के सामने राहुल और मोदी आलिंगनबद्ध हो गए”।

Great piece of writing, Suyash. Always eager to read more of you.

Cool4u (2018-08-06):
Too good, Suyash.
Lovely reading.

Ashok K Vasudevan (2018-08-06):
आलिंगन शब्द परिस्थिति के अनुसार गूढ रूप ले लेता है। दो प्रेमियों का आलिन्गन या दो दोस्तों का।
In every instance the spirit emerges . When two heads of state meet with a hug . The word hug doesn't completely encompass the emotions of friendship , trust and cooperation .
A good piece SUYASH

nononsense (2018-08-06):
Thanks folks for the comments.

Anonymous (2018-08-06):
Brought a smile to my mind. Good reading. Thanks Suyash.

Unknown (2018-08-06):
No doubt a wonderful piece of writing
I in particular liked the conclusion
Great work Suyash

Anjali Roshan (2018-08-06):
Good. Talent to look from different angle

Sofie (2018-08-06):
What got you started on this take now, I wonder! Nice work though…Ramesh

Unknown (2018-08-06):
Good work but seems to be biased…..Actually the one done by Rahul stunned Modi and he did not know what to do accept or express or….The same reactions which a lot of leaders showed when he hugged them….He is actually not used to such type of surprises as all his events are stage managed and he always wants to be in the limelight and this one act stole the show…..

Vasandani (2018-08-06):
Hug, hand shake , namastey or even raising your hands to wish or welcome a person is a personal choice.

Yes, hugging is definitely more personal

Unknown (2018-08-07):
Suyash very well articulated ….yes very aptly finished with Rahul's famous snatched symbolic one way hug and yes Modiji has made our alingan as most sought after way to immediately click..B
guď article

Unknown (2018-08-07):
Awesome blog! Embraser ( English version) is Rahul baba’s thing anyways! 😊

Anonymous (2018-08-07):
Extremely witty and hilarious..

Sameer (2018-08-07):
Nice one Ashu Bhaiya, loved reading it, especially the last part which was wonderful Satire.

Sujay (2018-08-12):
Nicely described Indian Tradition …we all know that famus incumbent child recently started babbling … His action proved it also… according to medical science speech delay could be because of mental or hearing disorder,I am sure addict has both .. …I am surprised that some people still think that dopy has surprised PM …it is nothing but … laughable…

The Embrace

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