Love and Work in the Times of Coronavirus

Here is one more blog, on what you and I can do, as our world gets fragmented and perhaps even claustrophobic with more clampdowns. Each of us faces an opportunity to withdraw from the relentless world of gregarious consumption, from the extraverted pursuits of travel, entertainment, and style, and of course from the toil and demands of the good old day at the work-space. As opposed to getting stuck on your Ipad or your laptop or phone, you can explore the following …

1. Recalibrate your Relatedness with Children and Loved Ones

With schools being shut, you and I are going to see a lot more of our kids at home — sitting bored, maybe scared, quite restless, and of course irritated … as opposed to the ritual of encountering them on a dining table for a couple of hours. With their social networks getting impacted, this can be the best time to have conversations that you have been postponing, avoiding, or that you never thought of.

Over narratives and debates shared over board-games, talk about this adventure with them — and how it is better than a disaster movie. Dialogue over anxieties and fears that today’s worldview is generating. Share your angst and understand theirs better.

Building Intimacy with loved ones takes time, energy, and lots of creativity! This is a good time to rekindle a new glow into your relatedness with a partner or a friend or a parent.

Personally speaking, during the 1984 riots, when we were in the hiding from the mindless violence, I discovered facets of my parents that I had not known afore. There was an intimacy that got created then, and which I cherish all my life.

2. Write

They say that within each human being lies a beautiful story — untold and unexpressed, and yet of immense potential.

If you have weeks of staying at home, staring at you as you listlessly fiddle your way through news channels and the internet, perhaps, you need to sit in a quiet corner and write or rather express yourself. It could be a poem, or an essay, or a book that you have imagined over the years, or just a blog as this one is.

Write your heart out — buttress your thoughts with your emotions, let feelings ignite insipid stances, create your own stories or ideas …

3. Reflect

A good meditative practice would be to reflect on the bounties and challenges of your life journey so far — search and define your own existential stances, values, preferences, biases and prejudices.

If you are not very introverted, search for someone who can listen to you, and join you on anything from — what gives my life a meaning to values that define you.

I have always liked Raghu Ananthanarayanan pithy yet powerful line — “In doing what I am doing, What am I really doing?’ as a way of triggering the inner witness to rise up and speak its mind.

4. Invest into the Community … Again

Dr. Sanjay Gupta over CNN was saying that the Coronavirus is leveraging the very best part of us as it spreads from one to the other — our need to engage with the Other. Our need to feel human by being empathetic to the other where kindness and sensitivity knows no bounds.

This is a good time to re-connect with the communities that have defined us and influenced us. This is a good time to re-connect with the irritable neighbor that is still sulking from the last conversation you had … this is the time to re-connect with the old and the vulnerable around us… this is a good time to discover how the poor are being able to manage with uncertainty …

A close friend, Srinivasa Addepalli, wrote about staying vested into connects with the poor and the gig-worker — who are getting impacted most by the virus.

The Coronavirus is going to test that part of us which connects and related to the Other and see if you are willing to fight this out!

5. Learn

Lastly this is the best time to learn!

A musical instrument, gardening, sculpting, painting, cooking — a series of skills are there to be picked up

But more importantly, this is a time to learn from what the universities have been offering all along — go through Coursera and pick up the course of Machine Language or AGI.

I am vested into GlobalGyan and believe that this is a future that beckons. Get onto a platform that provides you with new courses to learn and imbibe.

Stay clear of binging on what Netflix or Amazon Prime or Apple or Disney — these offerings may only accentuate your loneliness and your dependence / your addiction to excitement and entertainment …