Living in a Pandemic – Part 1

Sometime in March last year, we were asked to work remotely until the 'situation' around us improved. There was panic, confusion, anxiety for the first few days since I had no idea what was to come. After a few days of following the news, the gravity of the situation hit me – we were in this for the long haul. Considering the population density in India, general lack of willingness to follow rules and in some cases, absolute need to be physically present to make a living, made everything very tricky.

I don't want to go too much into this; it warrants a discussion with great minds and problem solving thinkers, not just a guy typing them out on a Friday night. What I do want to talk about is my experience of working remotely (for over a year now), after being a regular office goer for almost a decade.

The narration is divided into timeline based sections that navigate my mindset from the onset of this new way of life, my approach to those who did not share this luxury with me and how I tried to cope, but there were more nasty surprises coming our way.

February 2020

Towards the end of February, we got to know that we were going to be parents in a few months. This was an absolute delight, though, the thought of being responsible for a new life on this planet seemed a lot once the euphoria sunk in.With all the ongoing professional commitments my partner and me were going through (I was comprehending a new role within the company), there was more than one moment of scare and doubt if we could pull all of this off.

Our relationship was not an easy affair once parents got involved, but we fought it out and as a measure of success of the relationship, got married as well. We told ourselves that if we could get through all that, we could take the pregnancy in the right stride as well. So yes, we made peace about becoming parents and started looking out for the multitude of things that come with a pregnancy – doctor, literature, clothing, additional medication, you name it.

March 2020

It was all smooth sailing in the beginning of the month – we made a quick trip to Delhi to celebrate Holi with my in-laws. By this time, Covid-19 was doing the rounds globally and while every country seemed to be drawing plans to tackle the scenario, we took this with a pinch of salt. Several misconstrued messages such as home remedies used in our everyday diet, over confidence on herd immunity etc., made it seems like another hyped news article. In hindsight, it all seems very foolish now.

My partner and me traveled back to our base in Bangalore a few days apart and it was then that a total lockdown was announced in the country. The authorities spent every ounce of energy and resources into educating people about personal hygiene, social distancing and of course, the inevitable face mask. This must have been one of the largest communication campaigns in history, considering our geographic and demographic expanse. Initially, it all seemed to work – there was a sense of fear, anxiety and panic (not sure if this was intended in the communication) that contributed to what was a superb success story that the government could claim as a successful containment of the virus in a country with one of the highest population densities. I even remember writing a few thoughts about the situation at this time.

The Months to Follow

Point to note – one of the best frameworks I learnt in college that I apply in everyday life is the DADA theory; it stands for Denial, Anger, Depression, Acceptance.

As the spread started, many offices that could let employees work remotely decided to do just that. We all thought this would pass and spoke about it in meetings, virtual hangout sessions and even group chats outside of work (the Denial phase).

Not all of us have experience working remotely. My role required networking with colleagues across the office floor, thinking through solutions and getting things done. This required meetings, the occasional knock on someone's door for a quick chat – you get the picture. In the virtual setting, this was challenging. While there are plenty of online tools/platforms to get work done, not all offices are created equal. Some teams are comfortable working via email, some through quick conversations, some on Slack, some without uttering a word at work! Well, collaborating virtually requires us to adopt tools at least to an extent where meaningful work gets done. And since we all learn at a different pace, this would at times be more frustrating than expected.

This was also around the same time that the term 'Zoom Fatigue' was coined, along with a lot of coverage on how remote working is stressing out employees more than a traditional office setting. Platforms like LinkedIn had several camps that supported this or hated this idea, media added its twist by reporting increase in domestic violence and how some virtual meetings were turning out to be disasters. This was all at a time where we were working and living in the same space – physical boundaries of work/life was impossible, it was only in our minds. A tough thought to process for us lot.

Taking a step back, or rather a step outside the house into the 'real' world, I saw deserted streets, law enforcement workers risking lives to keep a check on unnecessary travel – it all seemed too much too quick. The weeks to follow would start a massive discussion on migrant workers being forced to leave cities due to lack of jobs (pretty much everything is shut at this point).

At the end of the day, India is a service oriented economy – we cannot expect everyone to push buttons on a computer and make a living. People pushing these buttons have created a system around them that rewards those who do tasks not considered very productive. Basically, tasks that don't make you earn more – cooking, cleaning your home etc., It was at this point that I started questioning a lot about the society we have created, the inequal treatment that is nonchalantly spoken about in our social setting among others (the Anger phase).

The anger just kept growing as I realized that it was ultimately the poor in the country that suffered for all the jet set lifestyle that was promoted so heavily. This excellent article on Bloomberg warrants a read to make my point. While the Bloomberg is more recent than my timeline of narration, it talks about how the 'staycations', 'workathons' and other marketing terms (dreamt up by the hospitality industry to pamper the steady salaried and business class of the country) contributed to the aftermaths we are seeing after successfully containing the virus initially. Once the anger peaked, I was mostly trying very hard to understand what we have done as a species prioritizing money over everything else and making it an absolute essential for survival. In case you are wondering, no, you cannot live by yourself in a forest – that's prohibited too (the Depression phase).

All this while, I must stress that we were fortunate enough to have jobs that let us work from the comfort of our homes, paid us in full regularly, gave time for mental and physical wellbeing and supported any breaks we needed. Though my new role in the company was on put on hold, my then manager was gracious enough to let me continue my work, without scaling down my profile or responsibilities. It was at this point that I truly appreciated everything I had. We even went on to give into a few temptations like making our home more comfortable since we would be working and living here all the time.

Six months into the pregnancy (sometime around July 2020), we started realizing that an extra set of hands are required to see the pregnancy through. After a lot of hesitation and planning, we decided to make a trip to Delhi and stay with my in-laws until the baby was born. My streak of luck continued as I was able to transition to my new role before the travel and when we finally got there, we settled into a family surrounding that was warm and loving. We were blessed with a baby girl in October. It all seemed too good to be true.

In this phase of Acceptance, I came up with some hacks that maintained my sanity at work and home. Maintaining a routine, spacing out work, talking through with my manager, physical activity and having a reasonable understanding of work/leisure time helped keep a check on the everyday life. It was also the time in the virus' lifecycle where awareness was good, number of reported cases had dropped and many of the affected got back into their old livelihood, or did something new. I was na?ve enough to think we were prepared for what was coming next.

May 2021

The current situation aptly suits the phrase – the less said, the better. As I jot down these thoughts, the world outside is suffering losses – people losing family members, loved ones, friends. With no vaccine in sight, cases significantly higher than before, virus mutating every day, shortage of oxygen, hospital beds, lack of discipline by the public – many states have shutdown economic activities. The ripple effect of job loss, rich becoming richer and the poor, poorer seems to continue as a recurring theme this year as well.

Conclusion

Considering the number of thoughts I want to share on this topic, I wanted to divide them into parts – this post being the first. Each major experience, emotion and thought requires a story of its own, so in future posts, the plan is to write on how we went about the pregnancy during the pandemic and in the next, hacks I came up with to maintain sanity and be productive as my surroundings kept changing by the day.

If you have made it this far, thank you for your time – see you soon.