Faces that Mask
Foreign immigration offices have been confused with the picture of our Prime Minister’s face on our vaccine certificates. Much though it reflects on the lack of knowledge amongst the officers despite the explanations given by the Indian travellers; what is amusing to note is that the face is no longer our identity. Politicians, actors, models, and other celebrities have had to come to terms with this harsh reality and have realised that the face is no longer the majestic identity of their achievements and publicity. Weddings, receptions, parties, celebrations had people vying to get themselves photographed and selfies became the most popular and faster way of expressing our narcissistic personality.
For those of us who have read about the ancient science of face reading, the present scenario with our masks on our faces all the time have left us with no other alternative. Thankfully perfect face reading rests on the reading of an individual’s eyes and we are left with the choice of exposing our eyes to the public or choose to cover them as well with glares. Temple visits always had the elderly priest reading our faces and people got back home with some prediction or the other from the priest based on his face reading. Sadly with masks, the additional contribution to the ‘thali’ of the priest stands denied. Reminded of the lines from R.K. Narayan’s, “An Astrologer’s Day”, “The astrologer sent up a prayer to heaven as the other lit a cheroot. The astrologer caught a glimpse of his face by the match light” and the story takes a turn after the client meets the astrologer. Intuitiveness and gut no longer work with the mask taking prominence in our lives.
Lip reading is another practice that has been impacted by the mask. Apart from it being a technique for people who have hearing loss, lip reading has been followed by many teachers while demonstrating speech sounds with young children. Lip reading and facial expressions go hand in hand and the mask masks it all. That the business of lipsticks has taken a dip is a separate line of discussion.
In earlier days, theatre used masks as a ploy to depict mistaken identity, disguise, and add the comic element to the play. So, in Shakespeare’s plays, for instance, we have Viola who masks herself for her safety initially and then we have the love story develop from thereon. Early years in England had women who wanted to see a play in a theatre wear a mask, for it was considered ill repute to see a woman watching a play. Masks then symbolized concealment and hence we had Romeo and Juliet meet for the first time at the Capulet’s ball with masks. Masks in a play like ‘Romeo and Juliet’ also denoted liberation from the feud that was going on between the two families.
Meandering to the present, with colleges reopening, the lecture halls have students masked as they sit through gruelling sessions of learning. There is a comic ambiguity to the situation that we are in, as the teacher fails to recognize students. There apparently is disguise as well when we realise that an errant fellow covers his face with the mask and slips by. Mistaken identity takes prominence in lecture halls as one student proxies for another. And as all English teachers would probably be battling with how do we describe the lines of the sixteenth-century play ‘Doctor Faustus’ by Christopher Marlowe where he writes, “Was this the face that launched a thousand ships….” and describes Helen of Troy as the boys in the lecture hall watch around and see the masked faces of their fellow mates disguised in masks…..
