And we’re again stuck in yet another wave of Covid. We don’t know how many waves are still out there waiting in a queue, but more and more people are getting vaccinated. One thing is for sure that sooner or later, the pandemic has to bite the dust. We have to bite off more than we can chew to embrace a post-Covid lifestyle.
Life after Covid-19 will not only be stretched up to bringing home the bacon, but it will embrace a whole new culture in which orthodox thinking will be removed. It will be equipped with a fresh basket of challenges. Like a majestic portal that welcomes us into a new world.
Digitalization and virtualization will be the new normal. Different work modes like remote working, hybrid working, and three model workings will be there. At the same time, outings along with the terms and conditions, a new page describing a long list of precautions will be added. “Sustainable, recyclable, hygiene, sanitization” will be new terms to attract a wide range of customers instead of traditional terms like “discounts, sales.”
Healthy products will be on the shelf, shake hands will be replaced by Namaste, identity proof will be not enough for international tours a document indicating our health status will be mandatory. You may see autonomous machines such as a robot, drones at your services. Instead of booking a ticket for a cinema, drama, concert on an application, a new menu saying “buy/rent” will be popped up. In restaurants and hotels, you will be now be welcomed with a sanitizer instead of a welcome drink. Travel will explode after the pandemic, and opportunities and venues for sociability will become huge post-Covid.
From a financial and economic perspective, the market will bounce back. Sustainable startups and businesses will go green, green jobs will be created, people will more likely prefer safe investments, long term views will be respected, the government will burn the midnight oil to attract the foreign investors to stabilize and expand the domestic economy, green projects will be quickly given the green signal, “go green” will be a new motto, the potential of M.S.M.E. will be recognized, supply and logistics chains will be strengthened, protectionism between friendly nations will be discouraged, billions of dollars will be poured into health and agriculture sectors.
The future will be brighter than we imagine, but along with that, the future of work has arrived faster, along with its challenges—many of them potentially multiplied—such as income polarization, unemployment rate at its peak as a result of inflation is soaring. Worker vulnerability, more gig work, and the need for workers to adapt to occupational transitions. This acceleration results from technological advances and new considerations for health and safety, and economies and labor markets will take time to recover and will likely emerge.
For a post-Covid lifestyle, we have to be adjustable enough to balance optimism and pessimism. People say that it takes a long time to return to everyday life, but there is a catch here. Life is proportional to the time, there wasn’t, and there will never be such a turn back where the life you lived in the past will return. Our lifestyle defines our definition of life, and circumstances define our lifestyle. Circumstances are never the same, and so does life. So it’s our call to cry on something which is not going to return or better prepare ourselves for the next unknown.
Remember present and future are the hostages of the past. As time goes, we have to recall our past equipped with rich experiences to get the right direction at the right time. Speed without direction leads to destruction.
Are we capable enough to live in a post -Covid world? Can we maintain the good habits we had harbored during the pandemic and recall them whenever necessary? I am asking this question because we failed to answer. After the 2001 earthquake, for a decade or so, the mentality of living in a highrise building had been quashed. It was like everyone had Acrophobia, and later the whole mentality took a turn. We follow specific protocols, rules, and principles when severe. After that, we openly flouted the protocols, regulations, and codes through which we had survived the tough conditions. The pandemic is a once-in-a-century crisis, and it has to be respected. Whatever we learn from that should be kept for the long term.
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Regards
Khushi Anand
