Madhubani artist's handpainted cotton face masks for Rs 50 go viral

The hand-painted face mask by Madhubani artist Remant Kumar Mishra from Bihar. Pic/Twitter Advaita Kala

With no end in sight to coronavirus, the Union Home Ministry had issued guidelines making face masks mandatory and social distancing to be practiced at all times. While several people have lost their livelihood due to the COVID-19 crisis, there are many others who are supporting people so that they are able to meet ends need.

A Madhubani artist from Bihar has gone viral on social media for all the right reasons. Madhubani artist Remant Kumar Mishra, who was unable to earn a livelihood due to the coronavirus pandemic, started making handpainted face masks.

Though he found few buyers, but as the news about the award-winning artist barely able to make ends meet went viral on social media, several netizens came forward to purchase face masks made by him. Writer and activist Advaita Kala took to Twitter to share the news and even shared the number of the Madhubani artist.

In her post, Kala mentioned that Mishra was selling handpainted face mask for Rs 50 and would even courier it to his customers. She further said that the masks have hand-painted Madhubani prints and each mask is made up of three layers of cotton clothing.

The response has been so overwhelming that Remant Kumar Mishra said he received over 300 calls in a day. He also said that he has been getting so many orders that he is unable to answer any calls.

One user who wanted to order a mask said, "The guy is not responding to messages and calls...How to order without communication?" Mishra said that he would call the customer himself after completing all the orders.

Mishra's work even earned him praises from Bollywood actress Raveena Tandon. She tweeted that the face masks are beautiful and she would be ordering a few for her.

Since being shared, the post has collected over 20,000 views and nearly 9,000 retweets.

The artist took to Twitter to thank everyone for providing him and his village a source of income. Hundreds of users took to the comments section to share their views. One user wrote, "They are worth way more than Rs 50", while another said, "Positive aspect of Social Media." One comment read, "Beautiful workmanship and what an unbeatable entrepreneurial zeal."

Here's how Tweeple reacted:

What do you think of these handpainted Madhubani print face masks?

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