The taxi driver had a point, perhaps we should be scraping our tongues

The practice of tongue-scraping is more than 6,000 years old but largely unknown in the west. In India it’s as commonplace as flossing. Christine Manby wonders if it’s time we all tried it

(Illustration by Tom Ford)

I recently took a hair-raising taxi ride. I had a feeling it was going to be a good one as I fumbled in my handbag for my mask before getting into the car. “You don’t need that,” the driver told me. He certainly wasn’t going to be putting a mask on himself. “Coronavirus has been blown out of all proportion.”

“Mmm-hmm,” I said. Through my mask. He went on to tell me that he was only driving a taxi that evening for something to do. He was actually a millionaire property developer and his three adult children were a doctor, a dentist and a lawyer. “What does your doctor daughter think of the pandemic?” I asked him.

“I don’t care what she thinks. She doesn’t know anything,” he said. “She’s got two PhDs but she just does what she’s told. I don’t listen to her. I know what’s really going on because I’m a member of a political party.”