Whoever said it was right. Being part of major historical event is not as cool as it sounded. It's more fun to read about it later. March and April of Year 2020 is a global pandemic event. It's jaw-dropping that a single thing has affected every single country. And government of everyone of them, are doing the exact same thing, with varied reactions from their people. Unexpected countries are behaving like leaders and are in control. Special mention to the commendable leaderships of India Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Minnesota Governor Tim Waltz.
With lockdowns, stay-at-home, shelter-in-place and social distancing in place, there is work-from-home and e-learning is enforced everywhere. The first few weeks of March were wait & watch. There was still disbelief and expectation of going "back-to-normal" "next week". This means a lot of new normals are coming up. While it might be cringy at first, we are all embracing it slowly, as we can hug in real life.
Its the new normal to have background noise in work audio conference call. It took a while, but now it's reassuring that it's not odd. Decade ago, I had got an admonishment from my boss, because our dog was barking in background while I spoke. That was at 10pm IST call and dog was set free outside. Nothing I could do about it. And today we had a conf call of about 15 people, and each spoke about their bird whistling & dog playing with a toy & dog snoring, while someones baby squealed. Its just fine. No apologies needed.
Other day, while running with kids, I saw a father-daughter-dog were walking towards us, so I slide off the sidewalk to the grass & road. And they had done the same at the same time. Both of us laughed awkwardly & called out, "Its the new normal" :) Its also representative of Minnesota nice (the good type). This has been the case since March beginning. Most folks are working from home & schools were off for 3 weeks in our district. It also meant that a lot of folks were walking & running outside on streets & trails. But the unique part was they all always maintained distance from each other. Real social distancing when outside. This way we wouldn't loose the privilege being outside in this beautiful spring weather.
Schools have switched to e-learning after 3 weeks of vacation. Then other private classes followed the suit and suddenly Zoom was the hot new app to use. Everyone took a few weeks to ramp up, but most of the technology was in place to facilitate it. Dance classes, tutions, virtual get-together and Birthday parties.
Social distance is in place. But celebrations continue. Birthday parades in front of the house, by well-wishers honking their cars & carrying placards.
TV is the newly discovered blessing - the magical tool that will keep everyone indoor. And Content is not just the king, but emperor. OTTs are giving free trials. DD is showing all the 90s shows again, to cash in on the 90s Nostalgia for truly altruistic purpose. Big scale. I want talk abou this in detai, maybe a different post.
Like TV a lot of old things are being considered in this new normal. Like Hydroxycloroquene, washing hands when coming from outside, staying home, cooking more. So its wise words, that this is our opportunity to consider what is the "normal" we want to get back to ? A few forums are using this piggyback climate change issues with this huge global change. Global economy is impacted, because people across the globe are doing only what they absolutely need. But side-effect is that air is cleaners, and animals are free-er to roam those spaces which are otherwise occupied by humans.
With lockdowns, stay-at-home, shelter-in-place and social distancing in place, there is work-from-home and e-learning is enforced everywhere. The first few weeks of March were wait & watch. There was still disbelief and expectation of going "back-to-normal" "next week". This means a lot of new normals are coming up. While it might be cringy at first, we are all embracing it slowly, as we can hug in real life.
Its the new normal to have background noise in work audio conference call. It took a while, but now it's reassuring that it's not odd. Decade ago, I had got an admonishment from my boss, because our dog was barking in background while I spoke. That was at 10pm IST call and dog was set free outside. Nothing I could do about it. And today we had a conf call of about 15 people, and each spoke about their bird whistling & dog playing with a toy & dog snoring, while someones baby squealed. Its just fine. No apologies needed.
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Other day, while running with kids, I saw a father-daughter-dog were walking towards us, so I slide off the sidewalk to the grass & road. And they had done the same at the same time. Both of us laughed awkwardly & called out, "Its the new normal" :) Its also representative of Minnesota nice (the good type). This has been the case since March beginning. Most folks are working from home & schools were off for 3 weeks in our district. It also meant that a lot of folks were walking & running outside on streets & trails. But the unique part was they all always maintained distance from each other. Real social distancing when outside. This way we wouldn't loose the privilege being outside in this beautiful spring weather.
Schools have switched to e-learning after 3 weeks of vacation. Then other private classes followed the suit and suddenly Zoom was the hot new app to use. Everyone took a few weeks to ramp up, but most of the technology was in place to facilitate it. Dance classes, tutions, virtual get-together and Birthday parties.
Social distance is in place. But celebrations continue. Birthday parades in front of the house, by well-wishers honking their cars & carrying placards.
TV is the newly discovered blessing - the magical tool that will keep everyone indoor. And Content is not just the king, but emperor. OTTs are giving free trials. DD is showing all the 90s shows again, to cash in on the 90s Nostalgia for truly altruistic purpose. Big scale. I want talk abou this in detai, maybe a different post.
Like TV a lot of old things are being considered in this new normal. Like Hydroxycloroquene, washing hands when coming from outside, staying home, cooking more. So its wise words, that this is our opportunity to consider what is the "normal" we want to get back to ? A few forums are using this piggyback climate change issues with this huge global change. Global economy is impacted, because people across the globe are doing only what they absolutely need. But side-effect is that air is cleaners, and animals are free-er to roam those spaces which are otherwise occupied by humans.
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