The Mask

Just when the longest and deepest recession since after the world war two seemed to be receding a few inches; with the newspaper headlines stating the upward movement of some esoteric financial parameters and the techies back home in particular and the country at large thought of breathing easy; there was something that started causing them the breathlessness. This was to the extent of being fatal in many cases. The population which had till this time been living under the threat of pink slips (don’t know why have they chosen the girly, polite pink to write on to fire people..should have been a dark colour instead..bad taste!! ) suddenly found that it might no longer be a threat as they had to be “living” to have one. What was this unwelcome thing?? It was a flu which had flown in with the winds from the west.

The “swine flu” had reached the Indian shores and it had done so with a bang (we would not have opened our doors had it knocked, was what probably the Government, accused of failing to screen it, must have been saying!! ). The flu started expanding its spread by engulfing masses at a terrible pace. God knows (and of course the virus itself) for what reasons, the once “Pensioner’s paradise” Pune turned out to be the favourite place for the seemingly unyielding virus (which even led me to believe that it must be in “retired virus” category). It hardly took any time to grab the headline space in the newspapers and breaking news slot on the TV channels. It didn’t stop at that. With its ever-increasing spread it ensured that the newspapers were left wanting for space. This microscopic guy was visible everywhere. The medical fraternity liked to call it ‘H1N1’. The only more popular ‘grep H1*’ (for those who don’t know, its a unix command) with a foreign connection my memory could fetch me was the ‘H1B’. I feared that with the speed of the virus India would soon have more H1N1 holders than the H1B ones it is so proud of.

The otherwise fighting humans came together to fight this non-human species which was inhuman enough to claim thousands of lives. They decided to spread the awareness faster than the virus. And there began the campaign. After having reported the havoc created by the virus, media started to spread the word about the preventive measures. The extremely busy experts and doctors resorted to overtime to give “bits” to the media. Some even managed time to be a part of numerous discussions being held at various places. The primary school kids became happy as the hygiene part from their curriculum was now being taught to everyone. But we needed something to prevent ourselves from the virus till there was a vaccine, which was till then restricted to the research laboratories of few Pharma multinationals. And we found it. It was the mask. The panicked population started flocking the dispensaries. The masks were being sold in more numbers than any daily need commodity as they came with expiry. It was ranging from few hours to a week. The customers had the variety to choose from. Taking a leaf out of Nokia’s book, the masks came in the N-90, N-95 ranges.

It was a weird sight. You could see the “masked men” everywhere. It was so ubiquitous that i imagined Jim Carrey sporting an N-95 at the mention of his movie “The Mask”. Youngsters of my age, who were deprived of the eye-tonic, thought of banning masks for girls in the age group of 18 – 25. But my mind, which likes to think of itself of being an intellectual’s one conveniently ignoring the fact that its mine, switched to the cerebration mode instead of looking after the aforementioned age group . Do we really need a mask? Aren’t we already wearing many? The behavioural training imparted to us taught that we must always sport a smile however plastic it might be (at least the environmentalist should object the “plastic smile”, I feel). No one’s allowed to display the emotions in this professional’s world or rather no does. Everyone keeps on wearing a mask. A mask with a plastic smile. It serves best to hide the emotions, the feelings, the inner thoughts which are all kept locked inside. The masks are worn as per the role. The manager wanting to get things done wears a “kind/caring” mask or an “intimidating” one. The leave-seeking employee on the other hand prefers an “innocent” one. The colleagues wear a “buddy” mask. In my salad days i used be intrigued by this and had once written :
"Everyone around bears a virtual face,
Why is it me who is so artless"

There’s this whole range of masks around which people keep on wearing all the time. And were now being asked to top it with yet another one. The mere thought made me suffocate. Just then something drew my attention : “Pune all set to welcome Ganpati Bappa amidst flu fears”. Which variety would suit bappa if he decides to go for a mask, I started wondering...

Andy