2020 : The year of THE MASK
3 years back, I had scoffed and giggled at the scene in front of me. That it was portentous of a “new normal” in the near future I could have never known !
I was sitting on the Kowloon side of Hong Kong gazing at the skyline of the main island at the touristy TST building. All around, were many tourists battling the harsh winter weather in their thick coats, boots and an interesting accessory that adorned their face — blue medical masks. It was amusing to see tourists clicking selfies while their smiles were completely covered with masks. That and a general feeling of great horror among people there, when someone sneezed in public, was an amusing trivia I readily filed into my Hong Kong diaries.
Cut to the year 2020, I have been clicking many such selfies this year. Great transformation indeed. They are no more a foreign, intriguing accessory to us, ignorant lot. Masks have indeed arrived and they are here to stay. How suddenly this happened is in itself deserving of being written delicately in the annals of 2020 history.
Advent of masks, sudden or staggering !
At the start of the year, the medical cabinet in our house had no provision for masks. By the time January had barely come to an end, there was a desperate demand for masks as supplies were limited and COVID-19 had just been recognised as a pandemic. We had managed to secure two boxes with 50 masks each and that was quite a coupe. It was a precious commodity to be used only in crowded places.
When the Government of Singapore distributed the first batch of free masks, they were much in demand and the move was hailed as an extremely responsible step by the Government.
Availability and role of masks from then on has continuously evolved. Scarcity of masks did not last more than a month and slowly one could see an abundance of masks in the market. It started with sightings of masks in colour and textures other than medical blue. It wasn’t long before the unsaid rules of fashion demanded wearing of matching designer masks. They were now an accessory for making a style statement. The mask fashion norms continue to evolve. Back home in India, a matching mask with the Indian kurta is the new style. Now tailors can always be asked for complementary matching masks to be salvaged from leftovers.
Masks have come a long way and yet so fast thanks in part to strict rules regarding mask wearing. However, it is too simplistic to assume that wearing masks is merely an obligatory part of our day to day living. They also have an important metaphorical relevance. In a world that couldn’t/can’t stop arguing especially since the advent of social media a decade ago, they symbolise the need to just shut up. The world may still be arguing, the fault lines of left and right even more conspicuous but the year 2020 has brought a lot of things into perspective and wearing a mask was an important legacy it will leave behind, symbolically marking a need to end the onslaught of rigid opinions and the resulting vibe of belligerence.
Not just that. In a world that is still fighting with the invisible enemy called coronavirus, they are also our most important weapon of defence. Questions about the efficacy of masks in preventing the spread of disease are still asked and debates about the need to make it obligatory to wear may still rage on. But living through a very unprecedented time where the landscape of information only revealed itself as the time went on, wearing masks was an important idea that saved a lot of possible victims.
But talk about the new complications of the new normal !
Few days back, a robbery was alleged to have happened in our otherwise very safe neighbourhood in Singapore. It was reported that the robbers were wearing masks and of course that is a given but the fact that it is no more incongruous to see covered faces in a crowd that is already in half veils, let them get away without catching attention. Some citizens have suggested transparent masks. Surely the evolution of masks as a part of our daily lives will continue.
The true face or just a veil ?
One subtle advantage of masks is the refuge of invisibility that it affords to the general low lying public. On one hand, it makes it difficult to recognise acquaintances in masks and hence greetings sometimes get directed at strangers and even otherwise known people, get ignored.
On the other hand, it also helps in allowing us to be ourselves.That smirk, or smile or random occasional slur at an offensive scene, everything is hidden. So much so that opening masks at public places where you can do so, has started feeling uncomfortable. Some of us have indeed become victims of this new habit. Ironically, hence, this mask affords us what the proverbial mask of being someone else takes away — the freedom of being ourselves.
Oscar Wilde couldn’t have been truer when he said, “ Give a man a mask and he will show you his true face.”
There are many other aspects of this journey and our masked up lives.
For now, as 2020 events become less recent in our journey, we carry on a legacy that it is leaving behind. The new routine when on your way out of the house. Remember to pick up keys, wallet, phone and don’t forget, The Mask.
