At the weekend, here in Delhi where I live, the government announced that they would start fining people for not wearing a mask in public.
Rs500 a pop.
We are in the middle of a dreadful health crisis in Delhi, with frightening projections of how the Coronavirus pandemic may increase and spread in the coming weeks.
Experts the world over, all agree that wearing of a mask in public is an important step in cutting down transmission.
Whether or not one agrees with this theory is irrelevant – well, unless you are the Prime Minister or President of a country, and then you can make the decision for everyone else.
Failing that, whatever you might/might not feel about the usefulness of wearing/not wearing a mask is totally irrelevant.
If the law says we have to wear masks – we wear them.
Ever since lockdown was eased in Delhi, & we have been allowed out to exercise, I’ve been going for a run in my local parks. Wearing a mask at first, and then, after just one day, a bandana.
It is neither pleasant nor easy to wear a mask, let alone run in one.
But it is what we have to do.
It is hot.
It is uncomfortable.
It is difficult to breathe.
But it is what we have to do, both to protect ourselves and to protect others.
When I run, I wear a bandana, with which I cover my nose & mouth whenever I am in the vicinity of other people.
It is a constant routine of up & down & up & down – and then, oh joy! – when the track is empty ahead of me, I can run with it pulled down for a few minutes. As soon as someone comes into view, up it goes.
That is how many other walkers and runners operate, and as people approach on the track, you can see everyone covering up.
As we should. Up and down and up and down we all go with the mask/the hanky/the bandana/the dupatta.
I am shocked, though, how many people in my local park are STILL not wearing a mask.
I decided to try and calculate what percentage of people don’t wear a mask in the park, which I visit twice a day – early morning solo run and an evening walk with my husband.
Almost as a game, a mental challenge, I count the number of people I pass and note the numbers not wearing masks. And it’s actually pretty depressing.
9/35 (ie 9 not wearing) 23/45 15/51 10/35 16/57 15/75
The last figure – 15/75 – was from my run this morning. And of those 15, 3 were runners.
There were 6 people running in the park this morning.
Yours truly, running slowly, up-and-down-ing her bandana as she went.
A lovely man and his young son, whom I meet every morning, who both had masks on as they ran past. We shouted out muffled “Good mornings” as we do every morning.
And then there were the other 3.
All fast runners as it happens, shooting past without even a mask hanging round their necks or in their hands, so they clearly had no intention of up-and-down-ing the way everyone else does.
Well, I suppose I already know the answer.
Because it is hot.
Because it is uncomfortable.
Because they were running fast and a mask would interfere.
But what the heck?!
These are abnormal, dangerous times, and it is incumbent on us all to protect ourselves and other people.
No one enjoys wearing it, but we must and should.
And tough if you end up running a little slower.