Initially, as news of the horrible virus spread, terrified people hurried for flimsy masks available at stores, rummaged for thicker, longer ones the shopkeeper said, would keep them safe not just from the virus but from any ailment under the sun, and settled for those Batman and Phantom would have…


Robert Clements is a newspaper columnist and writes a daily column, which has graced the pages of over 60 newspapers and magazines, from a daily column in the Khaleej Times, Dubai, the Morning Star, London, and in nearly every state in India, from The Statesman in Kolkata, to the Kashmir Times in Kashmir to the Trinity Mirror in Chennai.