Carrying forth the changes

Carrying forth the changes

The daily commute. Catching a first-run of a new film. In-person doctor visits. Checking out a hot new restaurant. These common everyday experiences are now fraught with risk as COVID-19 brought widespread changes in how we live, work, play, and stay healthy. Once the global health crisis eases, which behaviours and lifestyle changes that have become the norm during the pandemic will stick with us, and which will be erased?

Past two years into the crisis, we ask doctors, health experts, psychologists, and social scientists to ponder this question: What did we gave up during the pandemic that most people won’t return to doing, even when it’s safe to do so? Their answers suggest the pandemic brought many once-in-a-lifetime changes to everyday life that will become the “new normal” for millions in India and around the globe.

In some cases, those changes were positive. For others, not so much. Beyond the work-from-home trend, many workplace experts say the pandemic has altered the balance of power between employees and employers at many companies. We spend 8 hours a day working — a majority of our waking lives. So to find something that doesn’t just give you the ability to pay your bills and put food on the table but will bring you satisfaction I think is incredibly worthwhile.

Even churches and houses of worship have been hurt, with many closing during the pandemic and in-person service attendance. The movie theatre for the consumer is not going to be a place for people to just watch movies but a place where people go to be entertained. It has been a watch-party atmosphere, today there is desolation in the air and movie halls are isolated from the people.

People are thinking about their own health and the health of their loved ones in ways they probably did not before. That then is probably one positive that we can thank the pandemic for. Another aspect of importance is the look we have put into the quality of food and vegetables we buy and use. Also important now is the quality of water we use. In fact we are no aware of the air pollution, the deforesting that have nearly destroyed the earth.

It is time to choose the good changes and apply them to our lives. And discard the suffocating ones that have been imposed upon us.