It was just as well I didn’t encounter the gesture of “Namaste” until I’d been doing yoga for many years. I would have lumped it in the general category of oogie-boogie or perhaps associated it with a religious practice.
When the word Namaste was finally explained to me, I embraced the practice of it and have included it in my yoga classes ever since.
Just in case Namaste has become a perfunctory gesture for you, here’s a beautiful description which may infuse the practice with new meaning.

I honour the place in you where the entire universe resides.
I honour the place in you of love, of light, of truth, of peace.
I honour the place within you where if you are in that place in you and I am in that place in me, there is only one.

Namaste