So far 2020 has been an year which has made me realize that we are not in control and nature is so powerful that there is little we can do. While most media houses were covering the bush fire in Australia, a huge pandemic was just starting in China. I have just finished my new year vacation and flew to India before the huge migration of Chinese spring festival. It was then we started seeing news from local(Chinese) friends and media that an unknown flu like virus is making people drop like flies in the streets of Wuhan. At that time it had no name and we were calling it “Wuhan Virus”. My initial take was that for huge country like China this would not be a big challenge and they would crush it. But then came the news of a lock down and thats when things got serious. After spending half a decade working there, I had feeling that this is something, that would be grave threat and I started talking about it with my friends and family. I also was in constant touch with my friends and colleagues in China. Luckily, there has been no life loss in my circle of friends but not everyone is so lucky.
Despite the efforts made in China, virus started spreading in the world as China had just bought world some time but not immunity. Soon we started seeing virus cases in other countries specially South Korea, Japan and cruise ships. Then virus made it’s way to Europe and America. But what we have seen in China, was the opposite in west where most leaders downplayed the threat and some even made claims that with heat, virus will evaporate like it’s water. Now there might be some scientific theory to back that virus might die on surface under high temperature but it has no affect on community transfer.
Then all of sudden we saw people dying in Italy and Iran. People were confused, that a relatively well to do continent of Europe is finding it hard to handle Covid-19 cases. It’s then most governments and specially people on internet outside China realized the tsunami we are about to face. Then came the terms like social distancing and flatten the curve. But to lot of people these are buzz words and some might find it ridiculous that they are healthy and why would they go into quarantine.
Choice of words matter
In my view to make any behavioral change the language we choose to tell people is really the key. To me specially in a country like India where we have a history of untouchability and similar practices, social distancing might not be the best thing to say. I think the better thing to tell people is actually “physical distancing”. Social distancing for me implies that we should all isolate ourselves in our houses and apartments and stop talking to people.
In fact we should do quite the opposite now. We should rather reach out to more people than ever, text or rather go old school and start calling our friends. Now would be the best time to give that old friend a call whom we have been meaning to call but don’t know what will we talk about. You can talk about these desperate times at length and talk about each other’s welfare. Even for millennials like me technologies like Zoom and whatsapp allow to have video calls and conferences. It’s specially in these times we need to show solidarity and emotional support to other fellow humans. Only precaution we need to take is to keep that “physical distance” of 1 -3 meters from each other and make the most use of technology and apps available to us, but do not isolate yourself from society and people. We need the opposite in coming few days, use the internet and cheap data plans available to us. If someone who has a smart phone and can’t afford a data pack, gift one to them. I hope nobody will fall through the cracks during these tough times. If you are reading this and you just want to talk to someone connect with me or others on LinkedIn and we can find some common things to talk about. Stay happy and positive, this too shall pass!