Jubilee Post News & Views
Richesh Dutt
On 24th march, the Prime Minister of World’s largest democracy in an unprecedent move with a single stroke of pen locked down a fifth of world’s population, a whooping 1.3 billion people for a period of 21 days in a bid to control the spread of corona virus.
Such drastic measures, never taken by any economy of world surely had to have its repercussions. But as is said, desperate time requires desperate actions.
This article is a look back in last two weeks, at the happy hours, the silver lining amidst the doom’s cloud. Trying to find happiness amidst school, colleges and Industries being shut down, global recession around the corner, college campus placements on hold and to top it all the question of survival with increasing cases everyday and disastrous shape of health facilities in country.
I know so much bad is happening, and with worse around the corner, could we really be happy? But know this, Humans have survived for 200,000 years and this too shall pass but what matters most is: with what state of mind are we going to get through this.
I, me and myself time: Going through articles of people’s experience during the 1918 influenza pandemic(which too seemed end of world), I sensed the melancholy and lonely isolation, people of that time had to face during Quarantine. But today, thanks to advanced communication technologies this experience is not so unnerving.
People who are at home with family and relatives are luckiest; spending time with family, re-living childhood games like ludo, snake ladder, I-spy, and most of all once again listening stories of elderly whom we often tend to forget: the grandparents. Also, it must be a surreal experience that in Era of Netflix, Prime video and hotstar, people are going back to sagas of Ramayana and Mahabharata on DD with TV time snacks of Nachos, chips and coke being replaced with pakora, poha and adrak vali chai.
My brother being lucky enough to travel home from Pune described it perfectly as, once in a lifetime opportunity for a working professional to stay for so long with parents and grandparents at your family home.
But the larger populace, like me which is stuck and in isolation from society especially bachelors are also finding ways to connect: getting active on social media, pleasantry surprises with calls from friends not in touch for decades, video conferencing with family, learning skills online, taking time for long due “PERSONAL ME TIME”. I myself, have started blogging with this being one of many more to come.
Also, with cooks and maids on leave, I think most of us are going through learning phase of survival cooking: e.g.: Eating Maggie and rice(sounds horrible, but does the work), or not missing gym with all the household chores of mopping and cleaning utensils. Heck, I am so tired seems like I loose more calories than gym. Also lesson learnt: start respecting your mother for her work.
United we stand: Not only at individual level, but at society level too we have learned and grown so much during this crisis. On the eve of “Janta Curfew” from my balcony, I saw a Pandit paying respect to a Harijan for doing community service. On 5th April, saw a Muslim lighting candle and earthen lamp, as symbol of unity and hope.
These sights give a surge of emotion, a bond of brotherhood and a reminder of the beauty in diversity, making us all a family away from family.
I even had a lifetime of experience, when opposite to mafia and cruel image of police beating pedestals and punishing them without listening during lockdown, an elderly Policeman helped me like his son with my punctured bike despite me being out during curfew hours in Hyderabad.
Also at a time when society was divided amidst right wing and left wing, between CAA and anti-CAA, we are now witnessing society coming together like never before not just for PM-Care fund but to help at even more fundamental level of Company’s CSR policies, individuals forming groups.
We all read about the stranded poor people having no choices but to return home. But another side of same story is apart from governments, people are coming together to help those in needs. Even my company’s Hyderabad branch has set a fund of 60 lacs to help underprivileged in this crisis.
Necessity is mother of upgradation (can’t always be innovation ): The most severe hit of lockdown is on economy. With global recession at edge, biggest concern is to keep working while minimalizing the exposure of workers to virus.
Being an IT professional, I can see how little this lockdown is affecting our industry(India’s biggest white color job industry) compared to others with work from home facility. In fact, with the PM’s Digital India initiative, people gone home to remote India, could still find it feasible to work from home.
With the surge in Payment banks(thanks to demonetization ), we don’t have to queue infront of ATMS or banks as even sabji vala accepts payTM. The innovative home deliveries and vending machines such as BB Instant which provides wide range from groceries to dairy to cokes to chips without having to interact with single human.
Not only for individuals, high techs like drones and heat sensors are helping administration to map the affected or populated areas without endangering lives of scout policemen.
All these investments in technologies is surely gonna help us even once we defeat this virus.
In the end, all I can say is Its true it’s one of the worst time in human history and seeing no visible end in the future. But, as Dumbledore in Harry Potter said, “Happiness can be found in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light.” So let Hope and will to help others be your guiding light and remember to enjoy the small things around you. So keep calm and carry on.
(Writer is Hydrabad based IT professional)
