Covid19: From lockdown to unlocking a new humanity

Covid19 news and reports are almost as viral as the infection itself, as it takes lives whether the living or the dying. Writing another piece on its ill effects is quite pointless. You know it all by now!

There is an opportunity, a big one at that, for people, mostly urban, to seriously reflect on how we have modified our behaviour, our wants, our needs to fit into this locked-down, socially distanced mode. 

Of course, the Covidiots are there all around us to see but for the most part we urbanites have done a pretty good job. Whether it is a social conditioning to follow rules (really!) or just a deep-rooted survival instinct, we have quite seamlessly switched modes.

Hitting this big pause button from frenetic activity, a here and now mostly selfish pursuit of personal goals, while difficult has provided us with a golden opportunity to take back our lives, to create happiness and harmony at home, to return our cities to some goodness and hopefully give humanity a better future. 

Urban men taking turns in sharing household chores with their spouses or partners. Even if we brag, more than what we really do, on social media, it’s a change to hear so much about cheerful male dishwashing and floor scrubbing experiences.

Home cooking and eating in a much more practical (simple) manner. Experimental, experiential at-home-cooking than ordering that exotically photographed item online. A winner all the way, from togetherness to healthier eating!

Who imagined work from home could be so possible, leave alone productive? For the large urban workforce in the city I live in, it’s a boon; none of the two- and three-hour long commutes in highly polluted conditions. Or filling up on expensive fuel. Why wouldn’t real productivity go up? 

Human values on display all around. Support for the elderly, food and shelter for those who don't have it. Countless volunteering. Humanity the way it should be. 

For the most part people are staying fitter than ever. More time, energy and mind space to work out. Yoga rediscovered. Fatty memes don’t get it! 

And families and couples re-experiencing each other like never before!

Covid19 has probably saved more lives than it has taken.  In our country 12,500 people die every month in road accidents. Add another 1000+ being hit by trains on the tracks. I’m sure no such thing has happened in the last 30 days. 

The vastly reduced number of out-patients at hospitals, while puzzling, is also insightful. Do we really need to be visiting the doctor and the hospital so often? The time and money saved is a bonus in itself. 

The benefits to our cities and planet earth in general are just overwhelming. Pollution indices are at record lows. Wildlife is flourishing without our intrusions. Seas and rivers are healing with pollutants having mostly stopped. Clear skies reveal distant mountains not seen in decades and generations.

Such clarity on what we really need not what we wanted. Re-examining life goals, re-calibrating desires. It is all happening before our eyes.

What does this all tell us. Isn’t this the way we should live our lives going forward? Think about this. If we can just consciously continue the good things that we have, by circumstance, been made to adopt it will make our lives better lived.

In the words of the timeless philosopher J Krishnamurthi “From innumerable complexities we must grow to simplicity; we must become simple in our inward life and in our outward needs.”

So let’s go and reclaim our lives and live the dream… once Covid19 has gone. And yes that too shall pass.