Namaste Is a Greeting

Having looked this word up, I find it is a Sanskrit word often used as a greeting in India.  The actual meaning is ‘I bow to you’, or ‘the divine in me bows to the divine in you’.  Sometimes it is used in yoga practices along with joining the palms together.  But it is so much more than that, and this picture book shows us a small girl and her mum going about their lives and using the term every day.  It is the pictures that convey the story, while the short, beautifully-written sentences of the text tell us of the different things namaste can mean.  It can be shown in silence or in a smile, in a friendship or in saying hello; one can convey it in sadness or happiness, or loneliness, but it is always a way of ‘loving the world’.  It is being helpful or kind to those who are suffering – and it’s ‘a path when the road is unclear’.  The little girl uses namaste in all sorts of ways, at the end of the story in gifting a plant to the sad and lonely lady, who lives next door.  Namaste is a lovely and interesting word that means so much to those who use it, and it makes one realise it could be a world-wide way of bringing peace.  The illustrations are outstanding as well as the lyrical text, and this is a wonderful way of bringing Indian culture closer to home.