Handshake please?

I must admit, there was a time when I was quite influenced by the western cultures invading India. The denims, Coke, Slang's, Accent (!) and many others.
A few days back, I was a part of the interview and for the first time I wasn't at the receiving end. I proudly announce I was interviewing someone and very gladly so. After the interview, I was even thinking if I should include this in my resume as an achievement. But I realised the 'achievement' part a little later.
So as I was sitting (proudly) on a comfortable sofa and thinking of whether I should be the friendly interviewer or portray as a ruthless one, the candidate came along and smiled at me. He was confused if the 'western' culture was OK with me. I put my hand forward and shook his hands and introduced myself. The other person who was interviewing, my manager also introduced himself and all of us sat down.
There was a nauseating silence for a minute. (I was sure I didn't want to break the silence, I told myself I was always at the receiving end and I lacked experience in this and hence chose to smile blankly)
My manager broke the silence and asked him what his name was and so on. The interview continued and the candidate was so nervous that the resume he had brought, his obviously, was almost wet. I choose to ignore the dirty observation I had made and asked him a few questions too.
After about 30 minutes, the interview was over. The candidate probably thanked his stars for letting him go. Both of us, I and my manager were very friendly with him. Mind you. There was no reason for him to be so afraid.
The candidate finally got up from his seat to leave. I had made up my mind not to shake hands this time. I had seen the paper go wet. But the candidate came across the table for a hand shake and I had very little time to think what I should do to avoid it.
Grrrr.... I shook his hands with a plastic smile on my face. He gave me a royal smile and said 'Thank you, madam'.
I was disgusted and wanted to run-away to wash my hand. Believe me, that hand shake which lasted for no more than 2 seconds had made my palm go wet. (Though I'm fully aware sweating is a normal phenomena and more so during this time of the year, sweaty hands are a big NO NO)

I'm now for the Indian way of greeting someone, a Namaskara, its clean, hygienic and pleasing than any other way of greeting a stranger.

Ahem!