Corana and the Disruptive Innovation

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.