Mask-Us Erroneous

            Now you cannot get away from the corona thing, even if you are nowhere near it. Quintillion messages about quarantine crash in on WhatsApp. Social media is ablaze with videos. For brownie points, children making masks are videographed and floated. Many have got out of the social media, paradoxically during this lockdown, due to the pulverising bombardment.

            Mask is the in-thing now. People wear it even at home. One must wear it while going out. Most do. On their chins! Mouth and nose are left open.  Guests and anchors on TV to blurt out their wisdom. At such times they are not in a public place but nicely indoors with hardly anyone around. None is crowding the speaker, anyway. Should they wear? They do - on their chins! It incidentally covers their double chin. Right from top tier Ministers downwards.  To show off that they are with the times, obeying the diktat.  Intriguingly, beggars wear it, correctly. Rag pickers always wore one, diktat or no.

            There is a plethora of mask varieties. Technical, medical, home-made, stitched, non-stitched, paper-made, fabric-made, non-fabric-made, you name it. Also, everyday natural, like the saree pallu, the dupatta, the scarf or the muffler. Covering the mouth with the palm is also in order, as our good old village belles did when laughing, coyly. Villagers knew about health. There are masks with different layers and folds. There are for single-use and multi-use. Each works to varying degrees. In this pell-mell, no one knows the right one to don! Hope none is using masking tapes. Hello, why not?

            Instructions are galore on the net on how to wear the mask for effect. Strap around the head, stretch it over the ears. There are many permutations and combinations. Sample this. Wearer vs wearer, non-wearer vs non-wearer, wearer vs non-wearer, non-wearer vs wearer…. you get the drift. You can add wrongly worn vs rightly worn, vice versa and so on and on. Then there is the factor of variable distances to be maintained between each. This mask theory must a study by itself. I am sanguine; people are working on their Doctorates and Nobel Prizes on this.

            You can and are to test the effectiveness of the mask. When? After or before buying? See the catch? How many, test and discard the ones that don’t pass the muster? Is the mask washed after each use? Some wipe their noses and edges of the mouths with the mask. Can you fiddle around with the mask after donning it? Can you touch the outside of it? There are many protocols in using a mask. Even the know-alls are confused. So, the exercise of donning it is daunting and erroneous.

            Mask is anyway a fashion statement. It became a fashion ever since air-pollution levels hit the sky. The progeny of the once-our-country-folk, the rich and haughty young ones, sport it with their noses in the air. They look at you with disdain to say, "In your country, the air is so foul, I need protection". They think it shows class. Their dress does not. The richer you are, the more colourful, varied shaped, complicated and expensive your masks are. Lately, there are various attachments of all that glitters and valves on their masks. Only to flaunt! The la-di-da types. Soon models will wear them on their ungainly catwalks. Masks may be a permanent feature of the fashion world for many reasons.

            Today, the mask shows off your awareness and solidarity. But then, are you wearing to protect yourself from your inhalations? Are you protecting others from your sickly spray? Or both? Do you need to wear it if you are at a distance from another, where neither's spray will reach? Does the dangerous particulate matter, propagate by floating and travelling in the air? Does it stay perched on objects like the pricey hotel doorknobs? Does it wait with a sinister, confident sneer, waiting for a mere touch? Why wash the hand for so long and so often? In pre-corona times they called it OCD! Is Mr Corona fleet-footed or is a sloth? What about the time factor? How long does the evil thing stay alive suspended in the air or stuck to an object? Does the period vary?Does it depend on the object material? After that period, is it dead? Is it “all clear”?

The dangerous droplets don’t travel more than a meter or two, they say. Hence the calculated social distance. Who (pun intended) has measured with a tape? Is social distancing measured in meters? Those who cut themselves off from social media are at a social distance. Is it like the good old Raj (nothing to do with my name, excuse me) system of “Indians and dogs not allowed” concept? Standing at some distance away from another is physically distancing. We practice it often even otherwise due to the other’s body odour and such. In the mask theory study, this social vs physical distancing would form a part of the thesis. No one knows anything, so, they mask us.

Many put on the Polonius hat on the net. To sound knowledgeable, everyone sends out messages about the virus and about handling it. Most are fake and false. It is worse when wrong instructions float around. That causes more damage than the virus itself. The fear mongers. Such incessant forwards, we call viral, no? That itself gives a hint, loud and clear.

            Humanity always wore masks. As the complex social structures began to emerge, the mask became an adornment. Man used it to hide his inner self and evil intentions. Dishonesty demanded it. Disguise. Man wore it with aplomb. Look at the politicians. And other vile characters in every field and walk of life.

            Present-day masking has masked an essential human faculty: the smile. The cure-for-all is gone. With the mask, everyone looks stern with a frown. But the eyes are capable of all expressions, especially the smile; heartfelt or deceitful. Right now, they exhibit fear. Once the virus backs off, we have to re-learn the art of smiling. The former or latter depends on one’s own disposition.

One thing has surfaced now. Indian traditions had values. With an admonishing slap on the face of humanity, corona taught that. The world now understands the importance of hygiene, family, home food, the care for and the share with others including animals and plants and all things of Nature (we worshipped them), “social” distancing and even untouchability, to name a few. The last two are practised unabashedly and with vigour, now. Think it over. Our sages knew the rules about living healthily and harmoniously with, and in, Nature. Our Creator is bigger than us. Our invaders played havoc with these values and our lives. They masked us to their advantage. Now is it payback time?

            This entire corona case is under a universal, seemingly impenetrable mask! No? And mankind is under siege.