Masks on Delhi’s Christmas shopping list

Delhi’s increasing pollution level has made Delhiites so conscious that during a Christmas exhibition last Sunday at the German House, many visitors were spotted donning designer pollution masks while shopping for the approaching festival. The exhibition itself had two shops which had sold thousands of designer, colourful masks to the visitors in just two days, stall representatives said. Jai Dhar Gupta, a representative from one of the mask stores at the exhibit, said, “School kids, their parents, foreigners, young boys and girls – today everybody is aware about the harmful effects of air pollution and may be that is why, in just a single day, we sold thousands of designer masks here in this small scale exhibition.”

On being asked about the designer masks craze, Priya Sharma, an exhibitor at another mask stall, said, “White is boring for Delhi’s fashion conscious crowd, so we had to come up with an idea of colourful masks which would be pocket-friendly and trendy at the same time.”

Naren Patel, a 22-year-old student from Malviya Nagar, was found buying designer masks in bulk. “Dude, Delhi is choking, we all can see. Christmas will come every year and to celebrate it each year I need to live a healthy life. I would like to be safe first, festivals come later. My choice is always hatke, and these masks are cool, colourful and trendy. I’m buying a couple them so that I can pair them up with different kinds of clothes. I can wear the cobweb print to the gym, and the multicoloured bobby print to college,” Patel said.

Palak Gujral, a 13-year-old student who was visiting the exhibition with her parents, said she bought 10 masks to give away as Christmas gifts this year. “I had worn some glossy clothes in Diwali and dad made me wear a black pollution mask which did not look good at all with that dress. Here I saw red, green, blue masks in the shop which would look better with my Christmas dresses. So, I bought one for myself and ten more in different print and colours to give to my school friends before Christmas,” said Palak.