Discussion of All Things Political

BENGALURU, India-- The man sitting next to me at the Bengaluru airport tucked into his Vegetarian Combo Meal with relish. When he was done, he pushed his plate away, wiped his mouth with a paper napkin and then carefully tied a checked handkerchief around his face. The fear of swine flu has turned India, especially its airports, into Zorro land. Indians are masked, kerchief-ed, scarfed against the H1N1 virus.

The uniformed guard checking our hand luggage was wearing a mask. A little girl in a red frilly dress was wearing one. A middle-aged man traveling with work colleagues yanked his mask off, complaining, “It’s too uncomfortable, man. Anyway I am disease-free.” The two Japanese businessmen behind him looked unconvinced and firmly kept their pale blue masks on.

H1N1 claims lives almost every day in India. Pune, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Mumbai have all been hit. The government is scrambling to respond. Posters on how to take precautions against swine flu are everywhere from the bulletin board of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences to the airport bathrooms. My niece had doctors visit her college to tell them the do’s-and-don’ts about swine flu.MORE