In these COVID days, the title may mislead a reader but believe me I wear a mask myself and encourage others too! I read news that mask manufacturing industry is doing extremely well. I liked the marketing strategy of providing a matching mask / designer mask along with Indian dresses and saarees. Grading of these masks is decided based on the particle size that it can block but most are made using cotton masks. Some do not wear masks around immediate family members and COVID friends, whose immune system is trustworthy! Masks promptly get pulled up when any unknown person tries to be within six feet.
Prior to COVID days, the title might have been read differently. Long before COVID, people have been secretly manufacturing and wearing their own designer masks. For example, a designer mask while welcoming an unwanted guest is known as "अतिथि देवो भव:" mask! And the list goes on! Grading of these designer masks are based on the invisibility and plasticity! These masks are not worn around core group members who are gossip worthy! Such an unmasked group then protects itself by creating an invisible biosecure bubble which is thicker than cement blocks that can't be broken by any unknown person! If at all someone manages to break the bubble, group members immediately put on their suitable designer masks.
Enough of theory, let's look at some of my real world experiences. I do not know how but once I happened to be in an after party where I was not a member of the gossip worthy group! Whether it was my silence or the effect of few pegs, the group had forgotten about my presence! A person started telling a story about how the couple had welcomed an early morning unwanted guest by wearing "अतिथि देवो भव:" mask! They even offered a cup of coffee with invisible and plastic smiley mask. With the masks on, the couple continued to be a good host for more than two hours but never let the guest know that unhappily they had to cancel their shopping plans! My naive question, why couldn't they ask the guest to join them for the shopping revealed my presence and suddenly the topic got changed! Pushing my luck further I made a fool of myself by asking whom should be blamed if the guest wishes to repeat that great morning experience without realizing the host's agony!
Neither such masks nor a bubble existed during my childhood. I remember going with Baba, almost every weekend to see family members or his friends. In absence of phones in those days, our visits were always a surprise for the host and in absence of masks such surprises had always turned in to explosion of sudden joy and warm welcome. I happily carried forward Baba's tradition and surprised many. Later I learned that such habit is now known "Gate Crashing" or "Self Invite"!
On one Sunday around noon, I had some time at hand before the next errand so I visited a person in that area. My entry surely surprised the host as few of our common acquaintances and their families were having a lunch party. Though I was absolutely fine with the idea of they coming together without letting me know, the entire group was suddenly searching for their masks! It took a while for them to return to normalcy but by then I had to leave!
With COID around, physical masks are becoming visibly colorful, groups are becoming even smaller and more secretive about meetings - in-person or online.
Hasn't COVID taught us any lessons to be unmasked and bridge the distances by wearing a real smile with real "वसुधैव कुटुंबकम्"?
My friend Manju has put it in chaar laina /चारोळी
MASKS
Social masks
Elude and delude
Why wear them
Why not look through them
