Sitting on my swing chair I was wondering how many days have passed since the lockdown. I started to calculate and it was 46 days ago when my country, India decided to go under complete lockdown. I am under self-isolation a week earlier to that. Unless you are living under a rock, I hope you are able to understand what I am speaking about here. Yes, it is the coronavirus pandemic that has brought a halt to many of our lives and changed our lives completely, giving several degrees of turn to it.
I was still on my swing chair and my train of thoughts were on a ride, pondering on many questions. Questions like – ‘when will this end?’, ‘will our lives be different then?’ and ‘what learnings do we take from this part of our life to the other part?’ Among such questions, one rose above the other. It seemed to me that in my tracks of thoughts there was this question taller than others and raising its hand high up in the air, higher than the others. I had to but notice it. It asked – ‘Did isolation benefit anyone?’ Well, to be honest I have had read about people like Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandela and Ibn Taymiyyah (ra) writing while they were in prison. Our current situation is not exactly like prison, but we are confined to the 4 walls of our homes, stepping out unless completely necessary is prohibited, we have to maintain physical distances with one another – hence there are similarities. So, I thought to myself, “Why don’t I write. That will be my contribution during this lockdown.”
At the time of this writing, there have been more than 4 million people affected by coronavirus and more than 270K deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic worldwide. In India alone number of people with positive CVIOD19 disease has crossed 60K. In three short months, a novel coronavirus has captured global consciousness and changed day-to-day life in large parts of the world, in the process becoming a public health emergency. This is like no event before – not in our lifetime, neither in our father’s our grandfather’s life time. While we are coordinating with the local, national, and global response to the rapidly changing situation, we are, collectively, learning how to better tackle with this pandemic.
While there will be much to learn when (we hope) this pandemic is over, I think there are some key lessons that I have learnt that are worth highlighting while it has dominated all our conversations and sharpening our thinking.
Lesson one: Humility and gratefulness– When this crisis ends I hope and pray that we all will be humble and have a sense of gratitude. We take lot of things for granted but in reality it is not. Our jobs/business, family, the air we breathe, water we drink, food we eat, services we receive, etc. are nothing but blessings from our Almighty Allah swt. Current lockdown has made us understand that there are many who are not so privileged. We should be and act grateful
Lesson two: Going Digital - It is part of how every industry will be transformed as the pandemic hastens the digitalization of work in every sector. All those jokes on work from home that were there in the beginning of the crisis – well they are gone now, because these are new normal. We have learnt to accept the situation and have educated ourselves to work remotely. I understand not everyone in the population are blessed to do that. But necessary is the mother of the invention. People are providing services online, teachers are teaching online, doctors are prescribing online, and so on
Lesson three: Our health - We are not doing enough for our health both at individual level and at government level. This crisis has exposed lot of holes in our rather dilapidated health system. What we understand now is that the digital future cannot simply make the wealthy healthier.
Nonetheless, doctors and nurses are symbol of angel in this horror time. Our health care workers are amazing and we owe them a huge debt. Same for grocery store employees, deliverymen and women, and the many other essential workers who keep us going
Lesson four: Science matters - Denial of climate change and the safety of vaccines are examples of how science can be pushed aside when it conflicts with a political agenda. Yet science matters. This is especially clear during this specific coronavirus disease outbreak. We are eagerly waking up every day with our hopeful eyes that someone from some part of the world will announce the best news of our history that COIVD19 vaccine has been created
Lesson five: Education of the public matters - Remaining clean is a must. Who knew? Well, now we all do, and we’ll probably wash our hands a lot more frequently after this is “over.” Preventing disease in populations takes robust, responsive health systems, cities and communal spaces that are built with health in mind, economies that do not generate the poverty and income instability that feed poor health, and cooperation at the local, national, and global level in creating the conditions for health. All of this requires long-term planning, and a willingness to invest in health as a public good worthy of collective by-in. This begins with educating the public about what really matters for health. The reaction to Covid-19 has shown how much we still must do in this regard
We do not know till when we will have live with this new normal. Once this ends life won’t be the same after—and that’s okay. The coronavirus pandemic is a horrible examination, but are there some things positive that may come out of all this hardship? God willing we will conquer this virus too but I hope that doesn't take away the humility from us rather make us more humble. I hope we are better educated about our health by then and learnt to live with hope and gratefulness towards all the blessings we have.
I was still on my swing chair and my train of thoughts were on a ride, pondering on many questions. Questions like – ‘when will this end?’, ‘will our lives be different then?’ and ‘what learnings do we take from this part of our life to the other part?’ Among such questions, one rose above the other. It seemed to me that in my tracks of thoughts there was this question taller than others and raising its hand high up in the air, higher than the others. I had to but notice it. It asked – ‘Did isolation benefit anyone?’ Well, to be honest I have had read about people like Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandela and Ibn Taymiyyah (ra) writing while they were in prison. Our current situation is not exactly like prison, but we are confined to the 4 walls of our homes, stepping out unless completely necessary is prohibited, we have to maintain physical distances with one another – hence there are similarities. So, I thought to myself, “Why don’t I write. That will be my contribution during this lockdown.”
At the time of this writing, there have been more than 4 million people affected by coronavirus and more than 270K deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic worldwide. In India alone number of people with positive CVIOD19 disease has crossed 60K. In three short months, a novel coronavirus has captured global consciousness and changed day-to-day life in large parts of the world, in the process becoming a public health emergency. This is like no event before – not in our lifetime, neither in our father’s our grandfather’s life time. While we are coordinating with the local, national, and global response to the rapidly changing situation, we are, collectively, learning how to better tackle with this pandemic.
While there will be much to learn when (we hope) this pandemic is over, I think there are some key lessons that I have learnt that are worth highlighting while it has dominated all our conversations and sharpening our thinking.
Lesson one: Humility and gratefulness– When this crisis ends I hope and pray that we all will be humble and have a sense of gratitude. We take lot of things for granted but in reality it is not. Our jobs/business, family, the air we breathe, water we drink, food we eat, services we receive, etc. are nothing but blessings from our Almighty Allah swt. Current lockdown has made us understand that there are many who are not so privileged. We should be and act grateful
Lesson two: Going Digital - It is part of how every industry will be transformed as the pandemic hastens the digitalization of work in every sector. All those jokes on work from home that were there in the beginning of the crisis – well they are gone now, because these are new normal. We have learnt to accept the situation and have educated ourselves to work remotely. I understand not everyone in the population are blessed to do that. But necessary is the mother of the invention. People are providing services online, teachers are teaching online, doctors are prescribing online, and so on
Lesson three: Our health - We are not doing enough for our health both at individual level and at government level. This crisis has exposed lot of holes in our rather dilapidated health system. What we understand now is that the digital future cannot simply make the wealthy healthier.
Nonetheless, doctors and nurses are symbol of angel in this horror time. Our health care workers are amazing and we owe them a huge debt. Same for grocery store employees, deliverymen and women, and the many other essential workers who keep us going
Lesson four: Science matters - Denial of climate change and the safety of vaccines are examples of how science can be pushed aside when it conflicts with a political agenda. Yet science matters. This is especially clear during this specific coronavirus disease outbreak. We are eagerly waking up every day with our hopeful eyes that someone from some part of the world will announce the best news of our history that COIVD19 vaccine has been created
Lesson five: Education of the public matters - Remaining clean is a must. Who knew? Well, now we all do, and we’ll probably wash our hands a lot more frequently after this is “over.” Preventing disease in populations takes robust, responsive health systems, cities and communal spaces that are built with health in mind, economies that do not generate the poverty and income instability that feed poor health, and cooperation at the local, national, and global level in creating the conditions for health. All of this requires long-term planning, and a willingness to invest in health as a public good worthy of collective by-in. This begins with educating the public about what really matters for health. The reaction to Covid-19 has shown how much we still must do in this regard
We do not know till when we will have live with this new normal. Once this ends life won’t be the same after—and that’s okay. The coronavirus pandemic is a horrible examination, but are there some things positive that may come out of all this hardship? God willing we will conquer this virus too but I hope that doesn't take away the humility from us rather make us more humble. I hope we are better educated about our health by then and learnt to live with hope and gratefulness towards all the blessings we have.
