The pandemic that made way for more progress than passing.
I had a brief imagination this morning;
News flash: “The Novel Coronavirus, after 2 years of pandemic has finally been declared extinct by the WHO. A big hearty thanks to all the medical professionals, responsible citizens and scientists. The world is back on its normal course after a long stand still.”
Refreshing isn’t it, to dream of a world without masks? Writing this in the middle of the pandemic, not knowing when this would come to an end, I can say, however traumatizing these 1 and a half years have been, some equally positive changes came around too.
Hoping my imagination will become a reality quite soon, let’s take a quick look back at how a century long development and changes were stuffed in under 2 years..
It was December 2019, I saw the word Corona virus on someone’s IG story. Didn’t really look into it, because I never liked watching or reading news ( the negative ones) And then later, it slowly became the talk of the town and I had to hear.
Few people claimed that it was an intentional leak from a chinese lab and some others said that it spread from a bat. And I said, IT WAS A HOAX!! I was eagerly waiting for the day it’ll be declared a false news.
Uff! It has been 1 and a half years and I’m still waiting for it to end.
But I must say, we all always wanted a 6 month break twice a year. And lo! We have it. In this long vacation from regular life, a lot of interesting things happened around the world.
Things got trendier than the virus,various interpretations and new theories and concepts about the virus came up, an awful lot more than the much needed vaccine doses.
Among these various stories, I heard someone tell me that pandemics and epidemics like these always kept coming for every century throughout the course of this world. Whether it is some cosmic intervention or evolutionary glitch we never know. But it happens.
The interesting thing to note here is that with every natural calamity of such stature, a big change was just around the corner. The hunger for survival sped up the whole garage tinkering aka innovation process of humanity.
Don’t you already see that? Sure we don’t have flying cars yet, but predictions of certain changes placed around 2050 or after started showing up towards the end of 2020 itself.
ECOLOGY
Within the first 21 days of lockdown in 2020, came the big, happy news for all of us. With just 3 weeks without humans, rare animals were sighted on main roads, far away mountains could be seen from cities, river and lake waters became clear as crystal.
This got many of us thinking. And soon enough minimalism, eco friendly, sustainability became a few popular searches. Innovations to make water from air, cost efficient solar panels, reusable packaging, dissolvable covers, veganism, large -scale afforestation started coming up. No they have not become widespread yet, but they are growing is what matters.
The World Economic Forum has predicted that more job opportunities will be laid in the sustainability field. Exciting isn’t it?
WORK
For all those people who just need a laptop and internet work from home came as an alternative but is slowly becoming the best option. Although people initially struggled with work life balance, more tips by professionals is going a long way in making people comfortable and happy employees.
And those workers that engage in manual jobs, it was more than a pity to watch them land on the streets without jobs.
Millions of migrant workers who lost their jobs during the country’s strict lockdown earlier this year have turned to online training courses from Skill India, to learn new skills as they seek to re-enter the labour market, or start a business.
In fact, the lockdown has seen many workers become entrepreneurs, starting their own food stalls or vegetable carts and small businesses.
FOOD AND TRAVEL
By far the food and tourism industry are the most hit and affected fields due to the pandemic. But they were also the first industries to bounce back quickly with even more vigour and innovations.
Airplanes got AI sanitizers to protect the whole plane, offers for free travels, popular destinations giving out exotic itineraries for low cost packages.
And restaurants brought in robot waiters, AI tools to order food and extreme customization options to make the customers feel like kings. Well what’s even more marvelous is some restaurant brands started to give out ingredients for all the items on their menu so that people can have restaurant style food in the comfort of their own houses with the satisfaction of cooking it themselves.
TECHNOLOGY
Don’t ask me about Flying cars. I don’t know. All I know is, it is not there yet. But far more helpful tech has pushed their way into our civilization. In countries with a more older population, drones that deliver food, AI ambulances came as a blessing. As I already mentioned, gadgets to make water from air, self irrigating tools, more production of battery vehicles came up to serve us better. Although there are debates about the displacement of human jobs with the onset of AI, I think we might chalk something up for that too. But all these new inventions are here to stay.
HUMAN RELATIONS
The world that was running selfishly with unbridled individuality, and money at the loss of good relations turned around to seek human connections like we are programmed to be. Thanks to Google meet, Zoom; despite physical distance people felt a lot more connected and closer to others.
Breaking away from a silent monotonous life, running to mint money and having little to no time to spend with our loved ones, it was beautiful and wholesome to see people regularly connecting and sharing their days like never before.
Looking back at all this, it makes me feel, It was just a virus against so many other good stuff. Maybe it is true after all that there are always good things to rejoice for even in a seemingly worst situation.
Once again, none of us know where we are in the timeline of the pandemic, so make the best out of it until it lasts. You won’t keep getting 6 months vacation twice a year again.
Originally published at http://teawithchaai.wordpress.com on June 23, 2021.
