By Tony Samson
It can be startling at first to be greeted by strangers with a hearty, “Have a nice day.” The appropriate riposte is, “You too” (and not, “too late”). So routine is this exchange while visiting North America that we even initiate the salutation ourselves just to try it out, and expectedly get from the natives the expected “you too” reply.
As a people, we tend to be more reticent with strangers greeting us out of the blue. Unexpected exclamations of goodwill from bystanders in our part of the world entail instructions for us to give up our worldly goods. “Give me your phone” is such a phrase. It does not imply that the request is occasioned by a need to make a call for an airport pick up or do a computation on the phone for the exchange rate for the Japanese yen. The possibility of no longer getting back our new gadget is likely, as we stare at the quickly retreating figure.
Greetings and expressions of good cheer delivered for no occasion (as opposed to red-letter events, like Christmas and birthdays) reflect a society’s view of the future and what it usually brings. For a country prosperous and secure, the prospect of a nice day is a reasonable expectation. The pleasant passing of the next eight hours is considered as predictable as the bus schedules.
Such a stable view of how life will turn out may not be as confidently held in a different country that is avoided by tourists because of unpredictable disruptions like terrorist incursions or protest rallies by people wearing masks. There, a person of good cheer may express his diurnal view differently to a stranger, “Avoid marketplaces which attract glassy eyed young men with unusually bulky overcoats and a fugitive demeanor.”
Salutations thus vary from people to people, and place to place.
For a deposed political leader, parting words to a successor, perhaps out of goodwill and a desire for his colleague to avoid a similar fate could be, “Watch your back.” It is advice worth heeding even for corporations with an exiting CEO in the “turnover” ceremony for a replacement not listed in his succession plan.
Verbal ebullience is accompanied by physical expressions. The most accepted form of the latter is shaking hands. This practice is supposed to have originated from warlike cultures. The open hand is offered to show peaceful intent and demonstrate that one is not carrying a concealed weapon. The Roman version of this hand movement goes beyond the hands and clasps the arm up to the elbow in a longer version of the handshake, also known as the elbow clasp.
Ancient Rome too had its own nice-day greeting. “Ave atque vale” literally meaning “hail and farewell,” which for its expectation of a quickie meeting seems apropos. It is also used by gladiators expecting to meet their maker in a bit and adding — we who are about to die salute you. (Yes, the Latin version is a bit more impressive.)
Gaining ground among millennials is the wordless fist-bump which uses a closed hand lightly colliding with its counterpart. This form of greeting may be accompanied by the opening of the fist right after with a sound effect that sounds like “hiss.” That’s supposed to be fireworks to indicate elation.
Hugging, accompanied by an air kiss or cheek-touching is reserved for intimates and should be carefully choreographed with upper bodies not lingering too long in the clutch, unless the greeters are intimately related or have previously been introduced to each other.
The chest bump executed with a coordinated lunge into the air is reserved for athletes during a game. It is bestowed for some extraordinary shot (maybe, a rim-rattler) or defensive gem (swatting what was intended to be a slam). Chest bumps are not advisable for male-female greeters outside a sporting event. Fun runners for example are not allowed to bump frontally, while standing.
The cheerful greeting invoking a nice day may have become less widespread, even in North America. With terror alerts, joblessness and the eradication of retirement plans, even sunny Californians may find such exuberant optimism on the quality of the day ahead absurdly misplaced. Standing still cluelessly on a bike lane there is apt to invite invectives from passing cyclists, a shortened version of incestuous relations with mom.
Does it mean anything that our usual parting greeting is “ingat” or “be careful.” The vicissitudes of fortune in these parts makes the warning understandable… even caring.
Tony Samson is Chairman and CEO, TOUCH xda.
