ANY LESSONS LEARNT?

Huddled together at home, co-inhabiting in the same space with entire family after many years, we all reached various levels of realisations. These were primarily in the space of the basic necessities required to live a happily decent life without trappings of public opinion. Everyone we interacted with would have, without fail, expressed the same realisation in varying degrees. Uniformly we all realised that our cupboards were overstuffed with clothes we may never wear again to work or parties. We realised we had unnecessarily accumulated accoutrements which needed to be dusted everyday with no one to see them shine. Some realised the folly of having a very large home, while others realised that living and making life happen together was fun.?

Phase I lockdown was a mass leave the world went into and after the initial adjustment, we loved being caged inside our homes, connecting with neighbours only through balconies and friends on Zoom Calls and Google Meet. For a majority of us, it was the best days of our lives when the house maid was the most missed and social divisions or economic strata melted away and all that mattered was Roti, Medicines and Makaan!!?

By the time Phase II lockdown was announced, we were more engineered to keep the financial wheels of the economy churning. By then, the technology, which hitherto was at the periphery of our existence, became the mainstay for everything – school, education, office, college, doctor consultation, banking, money transfers, newspapers, grocery carts, shopping malls, friendly neighbourhood press-wala had all gone digital. We adjusted so quickly to this digital shift that in a year it became difficult to fathom how we lived before the Wuhan virus struck the world unannounced in 2019! By the time lockdown II was announced, there was a tectonic shift in the way commerce happened world over and we felt we were ready for what had to come.?

But little did we know what calamity awaited the world when the corona virus mutated to its Delta variant. The world spun out of control with inconceivable medical emergencies leading to uncontrolled deaths and unfathomable isolation while fighting to survive. The medical infra crumbled around us, what we never cared for became critical. Oxygen, which for us was price less became priceless. It seemed that the days and nights had merged to form a dull grey vision of death creeping into our homes through the smallest of grooves. Our loved ones became untouchables. Our investments felt worthless. Our social positions became meaningless. The dance of death never seemed to leave us everywhere we looked.??

This was just over 12 months back. We all know human memory is short. But this short? What we thought had changed us forever, seems to be a speck in our minds today. Yes, the occasional news on various platforms of positivity rates or vaccination and a scattering of people with masks is a reminder of the yesteryear, but we all seem to have moved on. ?

Again, the fight to win races, and to be the brightest start amongst our office peers, our college friends and school mates has overtaken our lives. If the economic trends are to be believed, we are now spending more on larger homes, luxury cars, expensive vacations, bigger celebrations.?Demand for Luxury segment saw the steepest recovery rate. Try going to a mall on a weekend and find parking or a seat in a restaurant or a breathing space inside a store! Try going to a travel destination and find air ticket or a room at your hotel of choice or entry/parking at a tourist spot! ?

Revenge travel; revenge spending; revenge partying. Those are the new terms coined by us to explain the inexplicable indulgence we exhibit only because we were lucky to stay alive while so many of our family and friends couldn’t make through it. But who are we taking revenge on??

Some say the speed at which we seemed to have regained ‘normalcy’ exhibits the tenacity of the human spirit to overcome all odds and bounce back to live another day. Yes, it does. But are we not creatures with mind, the only ones gifted with intelligence and reasoning for right and wrong? Should the memories of untimely demise of some of the near and dear ones not make us press the pause button just for a while to remember the gruesome scenes of mass cremations of nameless people by body-suited strangers? Should we not permanently re-calibrate our lives just a little bit to find time for what is truly full of meaning for us – our hobbies, our dreams, our health, our children, parents & friends? Will we let the lessons learnt yesterday be so easily be wiped from our collective consciousness? Is the revenge actually meant from our own super consciousness that seemed to have?sneaked up while we struggled to survive? Maybe. Maybe we will all like to think of it tomorrow, because, like Scarlette O’Hara said, ‘After all, tomorrow is another day.'?

#marchforth #lockdowns #covid19pandemic #revengetravel #learninganddevelopment