Satya Nadella brushes hands after shaking them with Narendra Modi

Silicon Valley, Sept 30: Some say its habit, others call it an insult. While Satya Nadella is yet to clarify, we can still speculate as to what was or is going on in his mind when a video of him wiping his hand after shaking hands with PM Modi is going viral. The matter would be settled if it was just out of habit, but what if it meant something else?

At first look, it was rather derogatory (more so because it was him who is already mired with earlier controversies). Social media went haywire after that as people flooded Facebook and Twitter with reactions varying from 'Nadella is a paranoid', 'has cleanliness phobia', 'insulted the PM', etc.

The video was taken at the Digital India dinner in Silicon Valley where PM Modi interacted with top CEOs on Saturday.

Reading through the body language

Coming back to the hand brushing gesture, body language experts say, it can be both rude and casual. The gesture can also be deciphered according to the span of the rubbing. In fact, it is said that the gesture is more common in colder countries than in hot ones.

In South America, the gesture means that two women are lesbians. It can also be a gesture of expectation, excitement, a journey, anticipating a good meal. It may also gesture revenge.

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However, this is not the first time. A similar incident happened at Mark Zuckerberg's talk show with Narendra Modi. Alliance for Justice and Accountability (AJA) sent over 250 hand sanitizers to Mark Zuckerberg to wash the 'blood' off his hands after meeting the Indian PM. The 'blood' refers to the alleged failure of Modi to stop the Gujarat riots in 2002.

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