Corona Daily 355: Up and Down in Covid Times

Last weekend, my family visited a shopping mall after five months. I didn’t know riding in an elevator could be a novel experience. The lift attendant, facing the panel, had turned his back to us. Markers on the floor indicated where we should stand. We were five of us in a lift with a capacity of thirty, but the attendant refused to let anyone in until we came out. All of us were wearing masks.

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We may not realize it, but lifts gave birth to megacities. There would be no Manhattan without lifts. On 23 March 1857, the world’s first passenger lift ran in Haughwout building, a five floor department store in New York. The lift was installed by Elisha Otis, the founder of the famous elevator company. Early lifts had instructions posted inside and outside: Enter and leave swiftly. Face the door while inside. It is believed lifts initially had benches at the back to sit on, making passengers naturally face forward.

In the nineteenth century men faced a dilemma. When a lady entered a lift, should they take off their hats? New York Times suggested a compromise. In elevators serving crowded office buildings, it was all right for men to keep their hats on. But in hotels or private apartment blocks, they must remove them when a lady entered the lift.

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By the twenty-first century, several lift etiquettes are followed intuitively. The list is long, I will mention a few. A two floor (two-flight) rule requests able-bodied people to take stairs up to the second floor. Respect personal space of others and distribute evenly. (Difficult in rush hours, and impossible in India). Don’t talk. No phones, please. Face the door. Minimum eye contact. Here getting your foot in the door is bad manners. If you are close to the panel, press floors for others. Hold objects next to your feet, because legs occupy less space than your upper body. Don’t eat, certainly not ice-cream, don’t drink, sing, whistle, burp or fart. Don’t chew gum, and don’t spit it out. Don’t look around. Even in a hurry, don’t apply lipstick or perfume in the lift.

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In the pandemic, new rules are emerging. Use knuckles or elbows to push buttons. Yoga instructors may be tempted to use feet, but that is bad manners. New apps will allow you to press the lift buttons with your Smartphone. I fear young pranksters using this to remotely operate the lift. Companies in skyscrapers are moving to staggered schedules. Salesforce plans to issue tickets to employees giving elevator times, like we have on cinema tickets. A consultancy has suggested a cheaper alternative of installing full size mirrors in the lobby, where people can look at themselves while waiting.

Facing the walls may become an acceptable etiquette. In a small enclosure, a virus can be transmitted through loud talking as well. South Korea now legally bans talking in the lifts. One academic paper from South Korea studied a large outbreak at a call center. 94 out of 97 cases of Covid-19 were on the same floor. This suggests lifts are not such a threat. We spend little time in them, unless trapped in one.

In a forthcoming horror film “Corona”, seven people are stuck in a lift. One of them, a Chinese woman, starts coughing badly. Before the pandemic, who would have thought this could be a film’s storyline?

Ravi