COVID-19 - A "Wake Up" Call?

Humanity has consumed our planet for centuries. And, it is a sad fact to realize how all of us ignored the alarms by the environmentalists for over the last decade. Are we so naive that we can only see when the threat is visible? Should we call ourselves sentient beings, if that were the fact?

For almost three months now, human life is surviving without a number of things we believed we cannot live without. Our impeccable survival instincts will find us a way to move past COVID-19. It is debatable how soon that moment will arrive, but it will - we can be certain of that. The important question is how do we choose to live afterward?

Radical irrationality is the biggest evil amongst humankind and it is visible across the globe. A church, or a mosque, or a temple; faith never-the-less is what we all resort to. Fear is a strong factor that could cloud the judgement of better men. But this growing venom is consuming us all from the inside. And, in an ideal world, we may find a solution for that - except, we do not live in an ideal world. How do we protect humanity from something that is believed as the "founding element" of our beings - the religion.

For years, if not decades, we planned our careers, worked towards our goals, plotted schemes (in some cases), and toiled - to be where we are today. Our priorities are no longer the same. We still want all that we wanted - alright! But, a lot of other factors we have started considering since this pandemic hit the streets we knew as home. We never believed something of this intensity could exist in our time - though wars have been fought over WMD. A weapon or not, it sure is hurting us in ways we never imagined something could.

The classical concepts of management relied heavily on the mathematical theories of labour. They evolved to be more inclusive and led to removal of autocratic leadership. But, even the best businesses and the leaders never could part ways from micro-management. The disaster management strategies and the contingency plans for the best of the organisations across the world never really factored a scenario of needing to manage their work-force remotely, in this magnitude.

Environmental issues have been a fancy topic at dinner parties and for pseudo intellectuals for a very long time now. With reduced human interaction with the mother nature, the planet appears to be healing - or so, the reports state. And of course, with lesser carbon emissions alone that seems plausible. Could the most important problem of our time be so ignored and yet, the answer to solving it be so simple - so doable?

Something I learnt over the last few months in captivity within my house, is that we need a change in our lifestyle. For so damn selfish reasons to survive. We will win the war against COVID-19, if not in 2020, then in 2021 - but we will. Like all failures and drawbacks, there are learnings with which we will move ahead in our lives for a better tomorrow.

We did not know (rather ignored!) the "other" priorities in our life than our career and lavish goals. The companies did not know that their operations can run just as smoothly with people having some liberty as they are confined within the walls of their punched-in & out areas. The Govt and the 'Faith Distributors' need to work in sync and if not, the latter be controlled to ensure the well-being of the community. And, most importantly, we all need a plan to survive crises such as COVID-19, be them the creation of mankind or due to the force of nature herself.