I subscribe to two newspapers just so that I can stay off social media trends and focus on meatier issues but as it happens, those very newspapers often report about aforementioned trends. This time though, those trends have a fascinating intersection with history, so couldn't resist writing about it.
The reporter tells me of a trend of not-so-cute dolls by a Hong Kong designer which go by the name Labubu whose designs seem to be now inspired by a 1st millennium BCE Mesopotamian demonic figure Pazuzu. Besides the rather memorable names of both those trends, it is a good reflection of the fact that bored humans over the rather brief history of our species have always liked a good scare. Even as social media algorithms press all sorts of buttons on rage, fear, love and lust, it is good to see social media talk about stuff from a few thousand years ago as opposed to, say, only-a-90s-kid-would-know sort of non-historic nonsensical nostalgia.
I, on the other hand, when I read of Pazuzu's historical role - a defender against demons being the mean demon that he is - I am forced to think of all the painted "Buri Nazar Waalein Teraa Muuh Kaalaa" [Sort of translating to - Envious people, may infamy pursue you] demons I have grown seeing on the backs of trucks in India. Not that I grew up on the highways of India, mind you, but the route to my school required us traverse a stretch of the same for a good decade or so. In houses in Uttarakhand, the same envy-busting demon's face now in clay molded form glares off newly built houses in my neighbourhood. Between the Middle Eastern Pazuzu and the far-eastern Labubu, I guess we should be happy to have our own version of what seems to be a trend that will never go out of fashion.
[virtual-inksanity]
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