Ponderings on Pandemic

It is around 3 months that we have started classes in the usual physical mode.  The lockdown continued for many months ever since it was first declared on 23rd March 2020 in India.  During these months, teaching learning process suffered a lot or I can put it in other words that in the given conditions what best was possible was done so that the process is not brought to halt.  Though the pace was slow the classes continued, exams got conducted, results got declared.  So all the activities that were possible with the use of available technology were taken care of. 

The offices were closed and in most cases the employees were working from home.  These conditions greatly affected human lives.  The times of lockdown during the COVID - 19 pandemic taught us many lessons at all levels, regional, national and global; personal or professional; family life or work life; individual or organizational life. On one hand we got lot of time to introspect, on the other hand it introduced us to unpredictable, uncertain and unexpected situation. Though, it slowed down the pace of life, it brought us nearer to our near and dear ones and to the invisible forces of socio-economic structure that help the process of our decision-making as well as in designing our thinking. It sensitized us towards the issues of grave common concern and to the plight of the people who had to leave their place of work and shift back to their villages or roots.  Most of them were affected as they lost their jobs.  Their reverse migration exposed the harsh realities of urban lifestyles and weak social capital networks.  Though the economy is recovering and we see lot of positive changes, yet many have not yet found jobs.  These were testing times and in one or the other way pushed us for course correction.   

Some of the learnings of these two years :

• Plan for the best; prepare for the worst.
• Relationships are more important than money, so be invested in relationships.
• When your inner world is at peace, you can handle any problem.
• At times physical acquisitions become burden; so focus on emotional acquisitions more.
• Concentration of opportunities and wealth creation activities in the urban areas has to be rethought and we need to have industries and enterprises more spread than concentrated.
• When one keeps on extracting resources from nature and harming the nature, it takes revenge through some such calamities, so always keep in mind, as we sow, so we reap. 
• Though necessity is the mother of invention, yet creativity is the fuel of invention. So keep nurturing creative faculties.

And there could be many more.  So you are all welcome to contribute and improve this list.