Here’s the thing with masks

My favourite pandemic meme is on my T-shirt, with Van Gogh wearing a mask tied between both ears. Pic/Mayank Shekhar

The warmest yet effective conversation with a stranger I can recall is from a few years ago, walking on the street, late in the night. The streetlight was enough to shine on only the top half of the person's face. She was stepping out of the ATM door, while I was at quite a distance.

Assuming I was walking towards the same ATM machine, she gently furrowed her brow, and squinted her eyes to mean, it's not working. I responded shrugging my shoulder to indicate, that sucks! She nodded sideways and closed her eyes to say, "Seriously, man; sucks."

We didn't know what each other looked like. But had managed to communicate all that was needed to. Saving me, of course, only that extra walk. The eyes express a lot, when that's all you can see, I thought.

Or you might have also observed, on occasion, since March, 2020, when the spectre of pandemic introduced to our faces a mask that concealed half of how people primarily know us by - automatically compelling us to make light eye-contact, with those passing by.

Which also makes it easier to casually avoid bumping into those we don't wish to, on a walk, for instance. Because even they're not sure it's you. That sweet spot of a cover from nose to chin, allowing for a plausible deniability about whether you are really there!

It provides you precious anonymity from an acquaintance, when you need it. And the first opportunity of a familiar wave, only when you feel like it: "Oh hey, it's me!" "Ah, what's up; sorry, couldn't tell, it was you!"

Could we get used to this? Hell, yeah! I hear during the 1918-19 Spanish flu - last global pandemic - reports suggested if people might simply adapt to the mask as a way to be, forever. Of course, that didn't happen.

What I did notice though, watching new releases online - while the world was holed up at home in the (relatively) early part of 2020 - is how prevalent masks were, even on screen. None of this content was really shot during the pandemic. It's like when you have kids of your own, you simply start noticing children everywhere you go.

I see Abhishek Bachchan wear N-95 at a dumping ground in Breathe 2. Watch a masked Manoj Pahwa enter a living room in a movie called Kadakh, because he's sensitive to smell. Even surgical masks in Coolie No 1. There was a screen full of masks in Money Heist…

The latter of course is what we instantly associate masks in pop-culture with anyway: bank robbers! What's the other? The legendary mask for the alter-ego of a human bloke, who transforms into a super-hero!

Batman's visor actively exposes him to COVID-19. His arch-enemy Bane is best off. A reason Superman doesn't wear mask, I guess, is because as Clark Kent, he was already born with superpowers - he doesn't need to transform, only conceal his actual self/powers from the world.

The first, working corona-mask I owned was of super-villain Carnage, lying around in my drawer, from the movie merchandise of Venom - no way the makers had a premonition of the pandemic. They just made my mask slightly cooler than others'. But only for a bit as fashion quickly caught up.

Making it clear that if anything must appear as an accessory on the body, the human aspiration for aesthetics will ensure it attains a purpose beyond its function alone - namely art, joke, designer label, even diamond-encrusted social statement - even if the world is on the verge of a potential breakdown.

My favourite pandemic meme is on my T-shirt, with Van Gogh wearing a mask tied between both ears. Except he (obviously) doesn't have the other ear! If we're gonna die someday anyway, may as well live with gallows' humour. What couldn't Van Gogh do with a mask that you can?

In that secret crevice between your mouth and cloth, you can feel more securely alone while the world looks on - you can mutter instructions to yourself, without anyone turning; repeat important points before a meeting/exam; chant calmly, if you're spiritually inclined; avoid the city's sweet stench; never reek of cigarettes or alcohol; stick with your stubble…

Better still, if you're on a negotiating table, with only the eyes exposed, and sometimes a smile that travels to it - you can put up a poker-face that the world champions of the card-game are incapable of.

You also, for once, look nearly as good as the person next to you - although if someone has indeed complimented you on how great that mask looks on you, I'm presuming, they mean you have a face for radio!

There is a cloak of rare anonymity and mystique that, I'm willing to bet, you'll miss, once you don't have to wear a mask anymore. God knows I will! Do it for the entertainment value listed above then - if saving the world and yourself from a deadly virus hasn't evidently quite been your scene so far!

Mayank Shekhar attempts to make sense of mass culture. He tweets @mayankw14. Send your feedback to mailbag@mid-day.com
The views expressed in this column are the individual's and don't represent those of the paper.