These unprecedented times have a silver lining

“It's a funny thing about life, once you begin to take note of the things you are grateful for, you begin to lose sight of the things that you lack.”

Germany Kent

For a while now, I’d been wanting to pen down my thoughts but was caught amidst work and life, and the whole hyped up ‘work-life balance’. Who knew that all our lives would come to such a staggering standstill that work and life would become synonymous. Thereafter, dissipating the phrase ‘work-life balance’ to pieces. 

For as long as I can remember, I’ve been caught up in the conventional "work-system" norm, just like so many of you. When the Covid-19 situation, followed by the extreme lock-down hit India and the world, it was terrifying but also unsettling and rather daunting for so many of us! In a country like ours, we were never taught to sit idle or take time off to deal with our mental health, we were rather trained to become an indispensable part of the rat race. And if we didn’t, more often than usual, we were termed as a failure. To pursue a hobby, was often a privilege, more than a justified need. The definition of success for a moderately successful individual was directly proportional to the number of hours they spent busting their lives in the office. Folks, who actually worked productively and left office exactly at the end of their 9-hour shift were termed as ‘incompetent’, because who goes home without slogging for 12 hours in the office and buttering up their bosses? 

What happens when all of this comes to an end? When the cycle breaks? What do you have when all of this is taken away from you? When there are no offices and no meetings and no weekends and endless ‘me’ time? When you’re stuck in the four walls of your house, with nothing but your mind and heart.

I read and read and gather a lot of information, to only partially conclude that in the wake of this pandemic, we have all been losing our minds. But are we really? It’s indeed an occasion of one the greatest tragedies in the history of mankind but why are we making it worse for others and ourselves? Why are we and the news channels and the media only looking at the negative aspect of this? What we need right now, is for someone to show us the light at the end of the tunnel. For all our lives, all of us have wanted- at one point or another- an opportunity to do what we love, to explore what we’re passionate about, albeit, in a world, before Covid-19 it always came at a cost. Don’t read between the lines here, but now is our time, to do it all, because there’s nothing else left to do!  

So, in these unprecedented times when we’ve been hit from almost all directions, I discovered two kinds of people- one who have gone into hibernation and are waiting for this nightmare to end, while, second, who have start exploring and innovating. Which one are you?

When the 2008 recession hit the economic world, about 3.28 million people lost their jobs in a week! It’s likely that this might replicate to some extent during the advent of Covid-19. But this wave of unemployment and recession lead to the inception of some of the most renowned brands worldwide - WhatsApp, Uber, Pinterest, Slack, Venmo, to name a few. It’s only a matter of time before this pandemic fuels the next wave of innovation. So, everyone whose been waiting for that ‘sign’, this is it. Now is your time, mate! Go, change the world. 

Concentrating on the Indian market scene, following the COVID-19 pandemic, India should have a chance to create a more stable, competitive, and profitable market for the global manufacturers and service sectors while the majority of businesses around the world face challenges and economic repercussions. Finally, after a pandemic and a massive lockdown, the IT sector which hires a total of about 4 million people, realized that working remotely was a pretty feasible option - ALL this while! A lot of top industry leaders from TCS, Wipro, and other reputed brands have made remarks claiming, the current working scenario is a 20-year-old regime. This new work-from-home structure is here to stay, irrevocably!  

It’s needless to say that consumer behavior will alter. New studies of customer behavior offer insight into expectations, perceptions of worth, and improvements to lifestyle. As a modern way of living,  social distancing would enable customers to visit retail stores only for the basics. Most people would find that they don't need as much, that they could spend less than they used to do. Retailers would now need to use technologies to eliminate uncertainty and discover alternative ways of brand placement. All the branding/ marketing enthusiasts now is your time to shape the market your way! 

The movies are shut down, family events, clubbing, and all such leisure avenues have been thrown out the window. So we're all just back to watching and uploading because everybody has to be at home. Fortunately, there are services such as Netflix, Hotstar, Amazon Prime, and online gaming software for our rescue! However, the most surprising thing here is that the Ramayana TV show,in Week 14, telecasted on DD National has broken its own record achieving viewership figures of 1.9 billion, according to Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) data - the largest since 2015. This can be a great cue for anyone who’s ever wanted to make a mark in the entertainment industry! 

Just like aforementioned, all industries are going to go through a major shift. The world around you will revamp, it’s your choice to take the command in your hands and be the changemaker or yet again, whine and complain about a system you don’t like. Choose wisely! 

Lastly, do not forget that we live in a country where there are millions who work as daily wage labourers, who’ve been shattered the most by this pervasive scenario. Help them. Help your domestic help workers, your drivers, your newspaper vendors, your security guards. Do not cut their salaries. Pay them extra. Feed the poverty-stricken. Fund their basic needs. Also, do not forget the stray animals in these crises. They are dependent on you and me.  

Let’s flatten the curve, together!

References

https://www.forbes.com/sites/hollieslade/2014/01/22/20-amazing-companies-founded-during-the-financial-crisis/

https://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/09/business/worldbusiness/09iht-jobs.4.19232394.html

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Job_losses_caused_by_the_Great_Recession

https://www.businesstoday.in/latest/trends/doordarshan-breaks-own-record-most-watched-tv-channel-with-19-bn-views/story/401299.html