Hope you are all fine and pray to God for every body’s good health. We are into an unprecedented difficulties following the early 14th century, fighting with epidemics like cholera, yellow fever and more. This time in the subsequent epidemic; Honourable Prime Minister Narendra Modi extended the lockdown till 3rd May; summing up a total of 40 days of isolation.Govt. want everyone to isolate themselves and to engage in social distancing.In terms of work, this “house arrest” isn’t necessarily a problem and although absolutely necessary in the greater scheme of things –is exactly the opposite of what we human beings normally do.
The stress and anxiety is also creating in some people a fair amount of paranoia, a very rational reaction to feeling threatened by this “invisible enemy” around us. Now many of us are trying to stay connected through phone calls, texts, e-mails and other means of communication. These alternative ways of remaining in contact can contribute to a sense of togetherness. He said “To tell you the truth, I had some of the best conversations with her that I’ve ever had… We talked about things in depth that we didn’t have time to talk about in the past…or we didn’t have the courage or the strength to talk about in the past – feelings I had, about mistakes I had made along the way that I wanted to express my regret and talk through with her.”
This is the story of Second World War. Millions of people were sent to detention camps. They were being tortured very badly physically and mentally. Their friends and relatives were dying in front of them without proper food and medication.
Psychiatrist Dr Victor Frankl was also captured, tortured and imprisoned with his family in these detention camps. Dr Victor was minutely observing and experiencing this entire trauma however he was busy in executing a much bigger task. He wrote a very famous book while he was imprisoned, “Man’s Search for meaning”. This book was translated in more than a dozen language and millions of copies were sold. If we closely look on our life today, We are also locked in our houses and facing lot of difficulty due to Corona, but the difficulties faced by these prisoners were brutal and far more harder than what we can even imagined today. Dr Victor’s family was also with him in a detention camp, but all his family members died in front of him slowly one by one.
In his book Victor narrates an incident about another prisoner who was also in the same camp with Dr Victor, but saw a dream about his release in February. He saw a figure with divine aura in the dream and that figure announced “please ask, whatever you want to ask”. The prisoner inquired about his release from this camp and he got the answer that he will be released on 31st march. After hearing this voice, he became certain that he will be released on 31st March. But as the date approaches he realise that he is not going to be free and he became ill on 28th of March and on 30th of march he eventually died. Though it seemed that he died due to his illness Dr Victor was aware of the real cause and it was his lost hope. He had lost all his hope for life.
Biggest lesson of this book is that we shall not be killed, by problems, by betrayal, by challenges or not even by pandemic but by lost hope. Victor states that if a person doesn’t have hope or a big dream for life, he will not be alive. Victor experienced a pattern in camp that most of the people died between Christmas and New Year. He explains the reason; everyone was alive with the hope that they shall be released from there on Christmas due to festivity. However, when Prisoner noticed that they are not going to be free, they died due to broken or lost hope. Dr. Victor explained, I could survive these camps because I had a big dream for life and one of the biggest goals to bring this book out. So even after so many atrocities, after so many difficulties, I could survive due to my Hope and my dream about life. Whenever a person’s hope died, his immune system becomes weaken. If Immune system is weak then one can die even due to a very small disease. So, you should have a long term goal in life a very big dream, a big commitment to life and if you have this then today your problems will look very small.
In this world nothing is permanent or certain and change is only permanent. After this COVID 19 our world is going to change and we cannot predict the future, we can not predict, how the market or economy is going to behave in coming months or year? However of course we can try to the best of our ability. I would like to narrate an incident of uncertainty. Does anyone know, what was the length of longest test match played? Let me tell you this story
This game was played between South Africa and England in Durban. The game started on 6th March 1938 and continued until the 14 March – 9 days in total. At that time there was no 5-day test match. Test match used to be without time limit, so result was always certain, and draw was not possible. On 10th day England needed 41 runs to win at the close of the 9th day, but the match was drawn because the English players had to leave to catch their boat back to England. Ship was fuelled by the steam and once the steam was ready, the ship could not stay. Due to the result which was a draw and based on the length of this match, it is often referred to as the ‘timeless’ test, and the only one of its kind in history.
We are human beings and we always must be positive and prepared. So, let’s visualise how our life is going to be after covid 19.
What will be new normal from a student point of view? Let me give you some insight.
i) Distance between theory and application will be reduced. Most of the classes will be online. Online classes will be new normal.
ii) Employers may fail to afford long term orientation
Course curriculum may be changed in coming days
iii) The continuum of intent to initiative will become complete with impact.
iv)Initiatives may lead to cash generation.
v) The state will remain a major player to make living less expensive across and affordable.
vi) There will be more correlation between hard work and pay-out and smart work and pay-out resulting to new skills learning.
vii) More companies will come to India so process based manufacturing jobs will increase.
viii) Important sectors like; Tourism, aviation and nautical, automobile, construction and real estate, manufacturing, financial services, oil and gas is going to take hit consequentially.
ix) Simultaneously; agriculture, e-commerce, ICT, Personal and health Care, food processing & retail and medical supply & relevant services are likely to grow.
Hence; following the above notes, we could more assume that uncertainty will prevail in almost all the productive grounds. Significantly; in business there should be “VUCA” which literally unfolds as volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous. It may be mentioned that complexity could be dealt with clarity and answer to ambiguity is – quickness once you are focused to do that. Following five aspects may boost you up to prepare yourself more to tackle the Covid -19 affects for more absorbance and sustainability; like,Engage,Explore,Explain,Execute & Evaluate.
Engaging yourself properly with the proper mindset of exploring with the right explanation shall widen your rote while pacing ahead to succeed .certainly; proper execution and evolution play extremely significant role on that. Before I finish ;I just want to tell you all that “we are not alone”.
We are not alone in the fight against Covid 19 epidemic rather the whole world is resolute to flatten the deadly curve of the rise of deadly pandemic.
But lets us not forget that; Corona endemic was although an unbelievable & deadly disaster but in the twenty first century it has fetched many lost practices and culture of our ancient civilization to the whole world.
Lastly, Namaste to all.
Stay healthy, positive and stay inside. Century
(Author is Chairperson, WOSY & Managing Editor of Chhatrashakti )
