A Brave New World

Today marks the first day of the Bengali calendar – Poila Baishak, the first day of the first month of the New Year. Here in Bengal, where I live, the streets would normally have been bustling with people – the Bengali New Year is a time for celebration with family and friends, for new clothes and for eating out! All of that seems so distant now as we sit in our homes and watch the world around us change more rapidly than ever before.

Millions of my fellow Indians will also be celebrating their own New Year festivals – Baisakhi in Punjab, Bihu in Assam, Vishu in Kerala and many more. These festivals are also rites of renewal, like other spring festivals in cultures around the world. As a reminder of our agrarian roots, they mark the harvest of the winter crop and the start of preparations for the next sowing season. In an Indian context, this carries over to businesses as well, with April marking the start of our financial year. It is this spirit of renewal that we need to channelize, as we seek to navigate through these difficult times.

Change is the only constant in our universe. However, there are certain phases in the long history of the universe, when the pace of change has accelerated significantly. These ‘tipping points’ in history have helped shape the world that we currently live in. We are currently in the midst of one such period in history, and to know where we are going, it is useful to look at where we have been. The Black Death, the most fatal pandemic in recorded history, is said to have killed over 100 million people in the 14th century and halved the population of Europe. This epic human disaster set the stage for a social, cultural and economic transformation in Europe, a period we now remember as the Renaissance. However, we did not get there in an instant. It was almost a hundred years after the peak of the pestilence that Gutenberg invented the printing press and a further half a century until the voyages of Columbus and Vasco de Gama or the works of Leonardo da Vinci. As decaying social and political institutions crumbled, new ideas competed to fill the vacuum. The surviving population and their rulers had a lot of choices to make, and not all of them chose well. In several parts, the worst of humanity spilled out, as fanatics targeted outsiders and states closed their borders. Overwhelmingly though, people chose wisely and the new social contract that was defined, helped create the world we live in.

Collectively, we stand at a similar crossroads today with the Covid 19 pandemic reshaping our lives. With more uncertainty than ever, we will see the entire gamut of human emotions play out as we deal with this change. Right now, we seem to have moved from initial denial into a phase where anger and resistance have taken over. From nationalist movements who hold globalization culpable for our current woes, to those who accuse certain communities of spreading the disease. From vegan/vegetarian groups blaming the pandemic on deviant diets to conspiracy theories linking the virus to 5G. Our world now is a melting pot of ideas, competing to define a new social, political and economic construct. In the days to come, once we move past denial and anger to acceptance, we will have to make some decisions about what we believe in. In the spirit of renewal of the New Year, here are three choices, that I strongly believe can drive our very own renaissance -

1.   Reason, expertise and logic above all else! One of the silver linings in the dark clouds that currently envelop us, is the welcome return to trust in science and expertise. After years of listening to political discourse denying climate change and advocating the benefits of hard work over Harvard, I can only hope that the current belief in the men and women of science continues long after the dark clouds blow away

2.   People over profits. The past few decades have been a celebration of money. GDP growth has become the benchmark to measure the success of countries, while the financial sector has doubled its share of the economy. The current crisis has forced a relook, as   governments around the world prioritize the lives of its citizens over the economy. I am not suggesting for a moment that we have to choose one over the other. My wish is simply that we take a more balanced view, where human welfare has the same if not a slightly higher priority than GDP.

3.   Redefining the value of work. It is only in times of trouble, that we realize the true value of the people around us. We now truly appreciate the contributions of those who are on the frontline of this fight for us – healthcare workers, police officers, sanitation workers. In turn, we need to reflect on what we pay them vis-à-vis our bankers or celebrity actors. As we try to build a new future, we need to reassess at how we as a society view different vocations. A good place to start would be to link the value of work to the human value that it creates, instead of the economic value that it adds.

These ideas and many more will compete for your attention in the coming days. My wish on this New Year’s day is that we choose wisely because the decisions that we take now will define the world that our children will live in.

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