For the last one week, there has been no
newspaper. I do not know the reason except the rising suspicion that the agent
and the distribution boys must have decided to obey the emotional plea of their
VIP family member (parivar ka sadasya) and drawn the lakshman rekha in front of
their house that they dare not cross. Well, it is a blessing in disguise
because no news is good news. In fact, prior to the grim telecast by our senior
family member, the newspapers had taken the oath that they will write only about Corana, all about Corana and nothing but Corana. The TV
channels, forever on the alert for sensational ‘Breaking News’ went to the
extent of News Breaking so that all ews
can be limited to Corana and Corana alone. For once the news channels do not have
shrikling, screaming, fighting politicians or their representataives on the show. That is again a blessing as we may not require hearing aids being spared
high decibel noise. When colleges and universities had closed down, the ever
open Whatsapp university has been giving lessons on Corana that includesupposedly
very knowledgeable “dos and donts,”
insightful wisdom about our ancient traditions and the taboos they imposed as
preventive measures to ward off diseases,
about the great Indian medicinal herbs Indian with their potency far
beyond the understanding of those medical and scientific researchers foolishly
trying to decode the CV genome, the efficacy of the liquid by- product of the
metabolism of our sacred Gomata, with a slogan “"Drink the cow urine and ward
off coronavirus," besides innumerable
predictions based on Hindu astrology, Chinese Zodiac and the Biblical warning about the Apocalypse and the foresight
of visionaries belonging to the Vedic
Age, and other moderns such as
Sylvia Browne with her prediction in her book End of Days (2008) and Dean Koontz in his novel The Eye of Darkness in 1981. One wakes up with Corana, spends the days with
Corana, fearing and forever looking for symptoms as vague as clearing the throat and shoving the thermometer under the tongue
and retiring to bed ,faithfully
following Whatsapp lessons w that we need 7 hours of uninterrupted sleep to improve the immune system . At the end what
happens is we keep tossing and waking as
frightening dreams of Corana disturb the overwrought minds. How I wish we had at least the glitzy newspaper
supplements that tell us how to remain
fair and lovely even if no one comes, no one goes and none to appreciate
/criticize how we look..
What does one do when one is
incarcerated within the four walls of the room? Twiddling the thumbs is fine.
But how long? And that too, this has to be followed by hand washing as per the
CV manual. Maybe it is meant to move us from our living room or bedroom to
the washroom and lather our palms with
any soap, preferably anti bacterial that leaves us with a hospital smell(as
sanitizers are only on paper and not to be found on any shelf) and retire to
the place we got out from. The women in
the house follow up with making gGreen
tea or Tulsi tea ( this is the advantage
women have as they have something to do better than twiddling the
thumbs). Then what next? No use switching
on the TV. Corana, Corana, Ccorana… it is no longer entertainment, entertainment,
entertainment. Then back to Whats app , read the messages that further
reinforce the fear of CV sneaking from every nook and corner and
wait for lunch that is the least exciting as the scare of a long
lockdown makes meals parsimonious and dull.
Well, what about reading? Absolutely a fantastic idea.! But then what to
read? No newspaper, no glossy magazines… Well, read a novel. But where to find a novel? All those books one had as a
student have already been thrown to the kabbadiwallah. How can we read anything serious after being bombarded
with such serious import like CV? And
over and above the question is when was the last time one hadever taken a book
in hand! One who advises reading must be
a joker!. Doordarshan has the most
brilliant idea to telecast old serials like the Mahabharata and the Ramayana to make the viewers a little more
spiritual and other worldly, but they may for a while serve to take us down the
memory lane, but then not sustainable.
But behind all this is the nagging
feeling that life is not going to be the same as before. The disruption that CV
has wrought in is incomparable. History has taught us how disruptions are
frightening to begin with and how they transform into something better at the
end. Steve Denning , a senior
contributor to Business journals quotes Brian Arthur of the Santa Fe
Institute who wrote that before he read
Carlota Pérez’s Technological Revolutions and Financial Capital: The
Dynamics of Bubbles and Golden Ages (2002).
“I thought that the history of technology was
– to borrow Churchill’s phrase – merely ‘one damned thing after another. Not
so. Carlota Perez shows us that historically technological revolutions arrive
with remarkable regularity, and that economies react to them in predictable
phases.” It is to be borne in mind that
a disruptor is the shaper of history. Disruption is not to be feared nor frowned
upon. We have witnessed some of the recent disruptive technologies such as e-commerce, e-journalism, GPS systems, ride sharing apps etc. Similarly the entertainment industry today is
facing disruption from Netflix and scores of such web series , online streaming
video etc. Disruptive mechanism finally yields to disruptive innovation which
happens in four stages –“knowledge,
persuasion, decision, implementation and confirmation…. from the
positive and negative aspects of disruption a typical pattern emerges, as new
technologies come to market and subsequently take hold.” (Stephen Sinofsky)
We have to brace ourselves to adapt to a new world after CV os done and dusted. History of Humanity is
replete with such transformations from
the discovery and use of iron as an implement to agricultural revolution to
industrial revolution to digital revolution. Just as we were getting ready to
enter the robotic age, we have a new disruption – the only difference is that
this time it is a biological disruption than a technological disruption. The
world allover is working with available technologies to win
over CV and will achieve it.
But the disruption it leaves behind for
a post- CV life has to be carefully calibrated and progressive strategies have
to be invented to make it easy and
possible for mankind to enter the next phase of civilization. One of the
Australian speakers gave an example of how restaurants and eateries may not
attract crowd as in the past with physical distancing acting as a bar. This
does not necessarily mean all chefs and cooks and restaurateurs will lose their
jobs. On the contrary there will be more orders for home delivery and food will be in great demand and all those who work as waiters
may become delivery assistants.
Universities, colleges and schools may need more space if they have to
accommodate students with physical distancing factored in. Maybe new desks, new
chairs have to be designed. There may not be space in the existing classrooms
to accommodate more than ten or fifteen. Hence online teaching becomes the new
line of education. Teachers- both existing and fresh recruits will have to
undergo training to impart online education.
Telemedicines, health apps may reduce
overcrowding in hospitals and new jobs as caregivers, home nursing, day care
providers etc will replace hospital paramedical staff. Shopping may undergo change as is evidenced
even now with people going online. This trend may grow seeking more and more
people to digital shopping. The Kerala
model of using a 1 metre longpaper cylinder
for the shopkeeper to push rice and wheat or any other thing from the
shop to the buyer’s bag at a distance of 1.5 metres is a disruptive innovation. There may be jobs
galore for interior designers who may have to design new furniture that are
small and could be fitted in the living room maintaining one metre distance.
Fashion designers can design new masks that match the dress; the masks can have
floral prints if the dress is plain and vice versa. Who dare look askance at
the age old saying “Necessity is the mother of invention.” Disruption
will force us to look at things in a new way, to adjust to a new culture, to
overcome reluctance and rebellion and seek a convergence of the old and the
new.
We have to brace ourselves to this new
world. Even language of communication may change. On a lighter side, I notice
that no one will say “Send your CV “. NO CVs please, we are Post CV generation.
May be a new term such as Academic or Professional Selfie(AS or PS) may be in
order. The paradox is everyone resents
change and everyone has to change as change is the only constant of existence.
India, in particular has to find new avenues for the millions of
unorganized labour and mould them into a
workforce for this new world. The Government, the academics and policy framers
may have to start thinking and strategizing new forms of training and education
for these millions without disturbing the fundamental concept of education as means
of broadening one’s mental and cognitive faculties. Sitting cooped up in our
homes, thinkers and scholars planners and policy makers have plenty of time
to think hard and innovate new strategies to cope with a brand new post CV
world .
Of late the world with India no exception
had taken to living life on the surface level, seeking immediate and instant
gratification and transient pleasures
without any contribution to the
world and the society around us. The last few decades especially that of GenX,
Boomers and Genz had sought fullness of
liberation/ freedom which meant freeing oneself from physical and mental work and having more time for fun and leisure. Young people hanging out in malls, an inexhaustible
thirst for cheap entertainment, vacationing
in exotic places, partying, dancing, drinking and crowding- all with no attempt
at forging human bonding have laid bare the fact of humanity clutching at an empty straw. The insensate killing, violence, intolerance
of fellow beings belonging to different religions, class and ideologies has made Man a marauder of this world which
is essentially a receptacle for Gods
plenty to satisfy all our physical, emotional, aesthetic and intellectual desires.CV
has ripped us off our arrogance and blown us off our feet and made us realize
we are not the rulers and drivers of our world. It is a tiny invisible
microorganism that has paralyzed the entire humanity and shown where we stand
in the mighty scheme of the macro
universe. Schumacher’s comment “Small is
beautiful’ has been modified to prove “small is powerful”
In sheer arrogance we dared to rival The Power
that has been the Creator, Preserver and
Destroyer, the Power that gives and takes
life with ease and precision.. Let us be humble and rebuild the world. The CV
has hammered us into smithereens despite all our technological and scientific discoveries
and innovations. As Eliot wrote “These are the fragments I shore against the
ruins”, let us collect those fragments that are still around us. Om Shanti, Om
Shanti, Om Shanti.
