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While the range of intelligence is very broad – from mediocre to brilliant, the same cannot be said about stupidity. Its like a cliff. At the end there is just the fall into an abyss. Remember the Coyote from Road runner if you want to imagine the scene. Except the Coyote always gets up in the next scene in his quest for the Road Runner, but one may not get multiple chances against Covid.
At exactly the same period last year, we were discussing cases, morbidity, lockdowns, economic impact etc. If someone slept on 15th April 2020 and woke up an year later, it would be hard to convince the person that an year has passed because the news headlines haven’t changed considerably. (Of course Trump is no longer the American President, but that’s a discussion for another day). But has nothing really changed? We do have a vaccine. And that’s it. That is all that’s changed. Well not really. The Covid Virus has changed, morphed, mutated and what not. The virus seems to be outsmarting the homo sapiens through a simple theory of evolution – survival of the fittest. Humans don’t care much about it. In fact, I now find Agent Smith’s analogy of comparing Humans and Viruses quite preposterous (Please see the movie Matrix for referencing).
It was like in the middle of boxing match having pounded the opposite number to the ground, we decided to even the stakes by using kid gloves in a match unto death. Caught napping, dropped the ball….so many different ways to describe how this pandemic has exploded on our faces. Most people love routine but somehow the routine of “social distancing”, “masks” and “Sanitizing” didn’t sink in. Its befuddling to say the least. I was really trying hard to understand how did we let this upon ourselves TWICE in a span of 12 months and I couldn’t conjure up anything more than, “ohh, we just got a bit careless”. My 2 year old twin boys can be careless when they drop a glass bowl.
I did travel as things sort of eased out but it seemed to me that the rest of the world had gone back to pre-pandemic practices. The 3 tenets of keeping the virus at bay were all but forgotten or at best poorly observed amongst most people. Of the many clients I met and spoke (until March 2021 when all hell broke lose again) to, most were optimistic and were hoping for a bounce back from the last year. Kind of in an exponential way. Well, it aint gonna happen any sooner now as we have put our lives back in reverse gear. It’s a classic case of 1 step forward and 2 steps back.
So, how do we move from here. Firstly, lets go back to what we did good last year from April onwards which was to take a step back and relook at our daily routine amidst a deadly virus looking over our shoulder. Its like an unwelcome guest, so lets just pretend to be well behaved while we plot its exit in the background. Secondly, in an inter connected world where close human interaction and proximity is critical to most businesses, its important to reimagine operations. Importance of use of technology is not be understated, but that’s just one of the things. Efficient use of resources such as office space, electricity and other natural resources becomes equally important. Thirdly, relax followed by revise and repeat point first and second.
Its super painful as many of us continue to reel under the effects and after effects of this pandemic.
On a more side note, and rather I should say hopeful note, the shooting for Matrix 4 is currently underway and will be released sometime in December 2021. If, we all behave well hopefully I can see the movie in theatre.
-Deepak Srinivas
