A few days ago, I came out of my bath with my hair wet and used the hairdryer. My mind was elsewhere and after a while, feeling my hair, I found it was still wet and then laughed out loud, the hairdryer though on, was pointed to the floor, and all along, while deep in thought I’d been fooled into thinking I was drying my hair, lulled by the hairdryer hum. How often such ‘humming’ fools us into thinking a job is being done.
Very often, driving down the highway, I see motor bike riders with their helmets on, and as my car gets closer, I realize they have not strapped on their helmets. I can imagine, what the newspapers will say, if there is an accident, “Motor cyclist injured despite wearing a helmet!’ Hairdryer hum isn’t it? Fooled into thinking he was safe, with a helmet that wasn’t strapped on!
This morning while having my morning walk, I saw someone walking with a mask which had a valve. A valve which allowed the air he breathed out to be pushed out like a jet stream, which defeated the very purpose of a mask, because if he was an asymptomatic carrier of Covid-19, and many are, he was going to spray the virus onto everyone in his vicinity! Did you just hear the hairdryer humming?
Something else this virus has taught us, is, we don’t have to go to a religious place to worship God. But just think, for many hundreds of years we thought God existed only inside a church, mosque or temple. So we diligently went to church on Sundays, but very often attending church, became our worship. We assumed that just being inside the portals of a religious place, was paying our respects to God. We got used to thinking that the place of worship and the rituals of worship was the actual worship!
Let’s go to other places where the hairdryer’s humming fools us: We create a police force the world over, to protect us, dress them up in khaki, put them in police stations, all which give us hairdryer hum security, and then get surprised as they do a George Floyd, or fake encounter on us! “But they are dressed in khaki!” we say as the hairdryer drones on.
We build huge courts, and legislature houses, then get lulled into false security, thinking we have a democracy. Today, after you’ve read this piece, check whether the hairdryer is actually doing its job, look beyond religious rituals and building huge churches or temples, monitor the police, the priests, those with political caps and judge’s gowns, but don’t ever get lulled by the hum..!
