Masking

 "To mask or not to mask", borrowing from the Bard's Hamlet "To be or not to be", obviously the similarities are stark, masking actually is being, and without the mask is an invite to "not to be" almost akin to committing suicide. Masks have become a way of life in the past about 15 months or so, ever since the advent of Covid and the Nation wide lockdown in Mar 2020; we are dutifully following the diktat. How times have changed.....

Masked men apart from the surgeons, were essentially criminals, robbers, thieves, kidnappers, killers etc who wanted to hide their identity while they committed the crime and got away without being recognised. Surgeons, of courses adorned the masks for a benevolent life -sustaining cause of ensuring hygiene before wielding the scalpel to prevent the patient from getting any other infections. Although, there used to be a joke doing the rounds that the doctors covered their faces to keep the patient from identifying them in case of a botched up surgery. 

Our introduction to masks and masked men was through the super heroes, Phantom, the ghost who walks, Spiderman, Batman and our own desi Kriish. Most of these super heroes stared at us through the pages of the comics, which each one of us treasured and enjoyed reading and rereading them umpteen times. They were fascinating characters, masks added to their enigma. Even today quite a few of us would rather spend a leisurely Sunday perusing our favourite comic, the child in each one of us rekindled. 

Then somewhere we grew up and jettisoned these divine pleasures, exchanged them for the worldly stresses. That is where we came across "masking" as practised by the people, to hide their real intent, feelings, emotions. Masks are traditionally worn by the tribesmen and these are treasured by most of us. In fact  we prominently  display them in our Living Rooms.The traditional African mask is worn during celebrations, dances and festivities and ritual ceremonies commemorating social and religious events. They play a very significant spiritual and functional role in the community (Wikipedia). In India Kathakali dancers as also our tribals in different parts of the country too have their own distinct masks.

Professionally also we were introduced to the term Masking, a term associated with manoeuvre warfare, with an elaborate definition, although quite self explanatory, which was exploited by most of us during war games and exercises quite successfully in keeping away from prying eyes of the umpires and the senior hierarchy. The software geeks are also familiar with their own versions of masking.

Trust the fashion industry to latch on to anything and exploit it, so our divas proudly strut around in matching masks, which are specially customised to their attires. The ladies now have another accessory added to the haute couture.

Masks and the theatre were synonymous, with actors donning them in their different avatars. As  life itself is a theatre where each character has to play different roles, thus each one has to put on different masks. Jim Carrey's Mask in the Hollywood film was an apt description of the way mask gets its evil act on.

As we grow old, we lose our innocence and the masks make an appearance camouflaging our real self, our very identity. So much so that we start identifying ourselves with these masks and lose our true selves.Philosophy apart, we have been behind these triple layered masks for a while, though many amongst us continue to be stupid thereby endangering not just themselves but also others who come in contact with them. The masks of ignorance which most of us display very proudly now needs to make way for the masks of responsibility for not just each one of us but also as a social responsibility. So mask on until we finally bid adios to Corona....