The flip side

Fashionable masks
While medical shop owners might be going all out to black market the N95 masks innovative designers from across the nation are putting together wacky designs on the surgical masks to add their own brand of humor to the over hyped ailment. Speaking about the same,Mithila Purohit an engineering student displays her talent for painting by painting on,the surgical masks. She says,“I made a graffiti ‘go away swine flu’ on the mask with a background of my fingerprints. Wearing it in public was a funny experience.” For the more adventurous ones,designers usually charge around Rs 500 for the redesigned n95 mask and Rs 50 for the normal surgical masks.

Rumoured: Designer brand Louis Vutton is rumoured to have come out with fashionable masks. The mask is printed with their trademark-monogram,made from a unique blend of Italian leather,Kentucky charcoal and the most delicate Egyptian cotton

T-shirts
For those who have a taste for the theatrical and a brand of dubious humor aimed at taking digs at the virus,there is no better way than to say it with a slogan on t-shirts. One such place where you can order pre-cooked swine flu tees,is swineflushirt.co.uk. If,however,the masks have already dented your pocket,then you can go out of the way and get slogans either screen-printed or painted using acrylic colours. Ankita Shah,a chartered accountant says,“I recently got the slogan: Happy Holidays at the Hospital — from Cousin Oink,painted on one of my old T-shirts. It felt funny to have it on a t-shirt; I believe that the problem was being blown out of proportion. So,I decided to make a little joke about it.”

Swine flu merchandise
If the fashion masks and t-shirts aren’t enough to make a joke about the ongoing crisis (of supposed epidemic proportions) then an entire array of bags,hats,mugs,rings can bring a smile to the faces of the hardest cynic. With an array of quirky slogans on coffee mugs,to funny cartoons on bags and also t-shirts online enterprises are offering a wide range of products. Ordering online from http://www.zazzle.com one can choose from a plethora of options. With bags having slogans like “Avoid Swine flu…Eat the pig’ to innovative hats,bumper stickers,posters and art work one can buy them all.

Swine flu biryani
While people are not able to think beyond Tamiflu,dhabas in the outskirts of the city are offering swine flu biryani. Actually a beef biryani,the restaurant advertises the same with a tag line – swine flu biryani khao,swine flu bhagao. Ironically the change in name proved right for the restaurant,which is able to attract customers,who come looking for the particular product.

Ring tones / caller tunes
One click on a search engine button can open a world of swine flu ring tones that includes- swine flu song (funny songs with horde of piglets singing),swine flu was the case (hip-hop) and many other. No matter what the genre is,the songs come with a message and are a hit among netizens. Websites like mobizaar.com / esnips.com / thecellfreak.com / zinkwazi.com and many other are offering free and paid download of swine flu ring tones.

Toys
Blue stuffed toys are almost becoming the face of the pandemic,as its makers in Mexico (the place from where swine flu originated),call it a souvenir of the epidemic of 2009. A whole new line of stuffed toy called Achufy has been introduced by a businessman from Mexico. The advertisement asks potential buyers to “show it off among your friends and tell your grandchildren of this experience that is unique in history.”

E-cards
Cartoons and comic strips about the pandemic are getting attention from netizens. Some can also be sent as e-card with messages like precautions to be taken to avoid swine flu. While a few cards show humans with the flu symptoms,some also show animals (cow,chicken and pig) mulling over new ideas to scare humans after mad cow,avian flu and swine flu outbreaks. Websites like Cartoonistgroup.com /theotaku.com /jibjab.com — are offering many such cards.