The year 2020 will be remembered as the darkest years in world history. All thanks to the monster named Covid-19 that affected us in many ways than one. No one would have ever imagined, what started, as a normal year would turn out to be such a nightmare, causing havoc in literally all aspects of our lives and impacting so many livelihoods.
While some lost their near and dear ones to the deadly virus, others experienced the worst of times due to job loss, major impact on businesses, and lack of mental stability owing to staying indoors, less human interaction among other things never experienced before.
For the first time ever, right from giant corporate firms to start-ups adapted to their employees working from homes. Schools and colleges too opted for online modes of education as they were left with no other choices. Yes, we had to deal with the major challenges posed by the Pandemic. Yes, we had to embrace the New Normal and get accustomed to more digitisation and virtual world.
The challenges post pandemic will continue to arise, as will new solutions. Today, some of the biggest issues revolve around the pandemic’s knock-on effects on talent, supply chains, inclusive growth, and more.
Life may not be entirely the way it was before the pandemic but with all the chaos and stressful times we had our share of lessons from the Pandemic. The kind of lessons that should have stayed with us for a long time, the kind of lessons that should have changed the way we operated, being mindful of our actions.
We have seen families being under the same roof and consciously spending more time together. We have seen a renewed discovery of the value of nature and the outdoors as people find they have more time on their hands. We have seen people walking, where once they would have used cars or buses. We have seen people growing their own vegetables, making their own bread and buying produce from local shops and farms.
Despite its many sad and horrible implications, the COVID-19 crisis in some ways prepared us to fight the unexpected. It drew us together as one global community, to see more clearly, what we are collectively capable of achieving, and to shift our focus towards what we need to do globally in order to secure our future on this planet.
The question remains as to how much have we learnt from this major crisis that was an eye-opener in so many ways. Ideally, our approach to this crisis should have transformed our behavior and made us see the bigger picture. We may have bigger crisis to deal with in future such as the Climate Crisis. Though we were leading a minimalistic lifestyle during the pandemic, we conveniently drifted back to our old ways by manufacturing and usage of unnecessary items that are not even environment-friendly.
The new world should be about things that really matter. The focus should be more towards sustainable products and natural materials that cause little or no harm to the environment. In addition, the Government’s focus should be more around supporting local manufacturers to restore economic performance rather than export/import.
Even the corporates and companies who had embraced work from home scenarios are expecting their employees to get back to offices without realizing working remotely had a lot of benefits particularly to the environment around, as there was less commuting and less usage of vehicles and electricity among others. This pandemic is probably the bigger reminder to all of us that it is high time we need to be cognizant and put serious efforts to reduce global warming, opt for sustainable ways of living and save our planet earth.
More importantly, the biggest lesson from the pandemic would be to cherish the one life we have, enjoy the little moments and live with gratitude.