Riding the winds of Post Pandemic: from Lockdown to Social Mental Distancing

When we all are worried against the trouble happening around….

When each day the new sun shines upon us with difficulties to conquer….

We know the world is singing a song of peace for us…

When the entire world is trying to heal & console us…

And as we all clap & light up the candle in hope….

Let’s show this spinning too fast world of virus…

That we all humans are filled with gentleness…

That the sun will once again shine bright on us with a positive tomorrow

                                                     Nothing is gonna throw us apart…                    

As we all have a faith to stand together as 

ONE NATION!  ONE WORLD!

The question that is nagging in everyone’s mind. Has, this pandemic made us future ready for an unforeseen virus that has attacked the entire world? Have we all started living a very simple, minimalist life or are we experiencing a lifestyle change or attempting to be sustainable? Are we going to take a step for a healthy & hygienic environment around us…? list of questions goes on and probably the answer to all this will be “YES!”

                                                               

I am sure this pandemic has made us all realise the importance of our existence, a small virus which could not be even seen with our naked eyes has indeed brought a big change. A pandemic that is so anti-human race, taking lives of so many innocent people cannot be credited for teaching us a way of life. Just imagine few months ago, we had some searing issues like global crises, environmental degradation, over pollution, sustainability issues and so on....and suddenly the entire world headlines have changed to just one subject, COVID-19 captures the whole world. Now this pandemic is going to change a lot of perspective about the way we look at the world, crisis is going to be bigger and people’s reaction to it can’t be explained. People mind set is going to experience a major behavioural & emotional change. The socio economic balance is going to be disturbed. All our necessities are going to take a twist; we will have a different set of action plans to be implemented individually or as a family. Till date no human intervention had made the whole world to stop and get freeze, but this pandemic spread has made us all kneel before it and everything has come to a standstill. But at the back of mind, we try consoling our mind that there is soon going to be hope, that we all will rise and shine and this will indeed be one of the achievements as One Nation, One World.

 In this entire lock down the Indian working sector experienced a complete change, earlier it was only the major IT sectors that had the privileged to work from home, but due to this pandemic struck a majority of industries went to WFH culture, we went digital suddenly Zoom, Zoho, Google hangout Apps. were explored. Our home become the new working spaces and a new meaning was added to people’s living rooms and social spaces took a twist, suddenly we realised that we don’t need to have all sort of so called Infrastructure, lavish conference rooms, as all this was made simple by just connecting digitally from the easy of our homes, a new world is going to be the next remote working space. 

Our homes, balconies & social spaces like living room got new identity and various attributes were added to it, our living spaces have become multi-tasking space, a cozy work place, a family room is no more where we watch only TV but we play, we work & get ourselves self-rejuvenated during this pandemic lockdown. Our balconies and terraces have become the most important social gathering & social distancing spaces. They are the one which are helping us to stay connected to the outside world, people are singing, clapping, celebrating special occasions and trying to catch up with their near & dear ones through this extended spaces. Some have started exploring balconies & terraces as break out spaces to engross themselves to carry out different hobbies like organic gardening, digital meets and entertainment platform, this spaces have surely gained importance in our life during this struggle time. I am sure more and more people are going to opt to have a balcony or terrace while buying a new home. 

Now let’s look at the different businesses, a new section called sanitized rooms, lobbies, meeting pods, entry exit point are soon going to be installed in all type of work spaces, say Residential, educational etc. A healthy & hygiene living standard is going to be a new mandate. Different advertising brochures will get a new marketing strategy in place …a saleable point by focusing & highlighting new creative ways to promote sanitized homes. A new job role is going to get triggered, "a hygiene consultant" (Building & infrastructure) who will just guide as on how to create virus free homes.

The office spaces are also soon going to experience a major shift, few years ago we had a new trend of co-working spaces, co-sharing spaces, rental spaces, which were much more in demand, but the question rises now is will this spaces revamp themselves as per the need, and will people still opt to use this spaces or will they have to be completely redesigned as per the pandemic needs or instead of hiring such spaces will we prefer to operate from home because the concern will be more towards the well-being rather than having a luxuries space. 

The other concern of social distancing will evolve into a new concept of having office floor spaces with well spreaded plan rather than shared spaces, the cafeterias, the common spaces, the pantries are all going to experience a design shift. The technology industry & software companies are soon going to experience a boom in their businesses as new software’s and appliances will have to be discovered to make our office spaces, homes safe during such pandemic spread. 

Automation is going to be the new talk series; wherein maximum focus could shift to contact less application. We might end up having automation in every bit to avoid contact with human touch, like touch free soap dispensers, configurable furniture, entry access through RFID/ BAR CODES, small working pods within the house for noise cancellation, contact less fixtures and doors, use of anti- microbial and easy to clean smooth surfaces, floor latches to minimise contact, use of UVC lighting for strong absorbance of bacteria and viruses, infrared cameras for seamless screening so on and so on. 
Our working environment might also change wherein we would see more of WFH options and implementing rotational basis office schedules. Education universities & institutions will also see a change in their teaching methodologies as 50% of the -syllabus will be taught online. Our modes of transportation might also change and we might look up at options which are less crowded. We might also end up paying more for our travels, the aviation industry might also streamline their travel guidelines they might increase the fares and may observe social distancing in the flights too. While making a booking you might asked to select the time slot for your pre departure procedures to be carried out. 

The travel restrictions with public transportation might also be re looked at …we might experience change in every aspect where there is contact with humans considered. There will be guidelines, systems set in each and every place say from movie theatres to restaurants, a pre entry guideline manual will  always be in place and we all will have to follow a procedure. 

Let us all look at this entire scenario with a transformation lens, and let us keep a room for normalcy to return in certain areas. But we should also start looking at other side that this pandemic has so far taken away a lot of social & physical things from us. The most important element sharing is caring has lost its identity. We have also been seeing a very selfish side of the world if things don’t revert back to normalcy, masked identities shall cover our smiles, we may lose the entire human touch. Our expression of feelings will be hypothetical. We must fight the enemy of human race, emerge victory but we need to restore the way so that we can apply lessons that deserve a perfect place. 

This pandemic has surely brought a trajectory move, but when we look at the entire scenario it has also brought us all together, we all have started having a life by spending the most beautiful time with our family members, playing with our kids, exploring different interest and hobbies which otherwise was not possible due to busy schedule and work environment. People have started knowing each other, our families have changed, this COVID brought us all together to love and care and spread happiness among us to stand strong.  This pandemic has struck an alarm, and has opened a plethora of concerns among the minds of people. The way forward is a dilemma, can we continue to be paranoid, is normality for us be the real reality? This pandemic might end one day but the impact is definitely going to change the course of our daily life.

Change can be beautiful & scary at times….

Change can be hurting and healing at times…..

Change can be a wonderful tomorrow….

Sometimes it’s better not to question the change….

But instead experience all of its emotions, which shall bring to you a beautiful tomorrow.…

- Ar. Mellissa Pereira 

Assistant Professor -TSAP