That’s what they would say in olden times. Be who you are, don’t wear a mask. Masked folks are tricky folks, they are not what they appear to be.

Is that not so? Or am I wrong? Are your olden times younger that my olden times? Could well be. Did they not say this in your olden times? What they said in my olden times? Could well be. Kya karen?

That’s time. It passes and it often tricks us into believing it has not passed. Just look at folks who would want to appear — and aver — they are younger than the time they have passed here. On this planet. Among us. Since they were born. They do all sorts of things to appear what they are no longer, to cheat time, to, you know, well, delude themselves. They paint their hair, for instance, hai naa? Not a problem; we paint more things than our hair. We paint walls, we paint furniture, we paint grilles and balustrades, we paint pavements and medians, we paint things. We too are things, we paint. We paint ourselves too. Here. There. Not everywhere. But just a few less places than everywhere.

The most crafty mask is the mask that does not show. You wear a mask but nobody can tell you are wearing a mask. You tell people I am your messiah, you are in fact only messing with them. But they believe you’re a messiah when what you are deliberately and consciously doing is messing. That sort of mask. Bhai kamaal hai. Where did you order this one? Hain? Tell us naa, we also want. We too want to mess about and be called Messiah, who wouldn’t?

Why is it you don’t wear a mask, though?

You got the best jab in the world, hai naa? Don’t lie, jhooth boley kauwwa kaatey. Which one, go on, tell us, the jab that nobody else got, right?

The jab of all jabs, the jab you told nobody you were getting, the greater jab. That’s why you don’t wear a mask, and roam and mingle free. Right? Well, whatever.

But you do wear a mask, the mask that takes some doing to wear, the mask that is not easy to convince the others with. I mean you kiss our HolyBook and all, having just arrived from desecrating it in careful and uncaring ways, and you think we should believe your kissing to be a genuine thing. And you proclaim we are a realm ruled by the will of the people and then you do this and you do that that throttle the will of the people when the will of the people strays from consonance with what you will. That sort of mask. You told us everything should be transparent and then you go and arrange things so that no questions get answered. Not by you at any rate. You think yourself not answerable.

You wear the mask of being so. You say all that you do you do for the people. And then we learn, every other day, that those people you do things for are a handful of people who, in turn, probably do things for you. That sort of mask you wear, don’t you?

And now that we are being told we need to wear two masks, one strapped on top of another, and both preferably, of certain descriptions and ability, He (or is it She) only knows what levels of deception and receipt you will be able to subject us to. One mask that we cannot see is bad enough, and now we look at the prospect of two that we cannot see. And yet you do not mask mask, you see. We can all see. You remain a peril to us, masked. You remain peril to us double masked. You remain a peril to us not masked. At least wear a mask, the prescribed one. The rest... those who will see will see, and what will be done will be done. Go on, mask up.

They tell us in your mane you bask

But is it a fair question to ask

When it is our duty and our task

Why on earth do you not wear a mask?