LIFE AFTER COVID-19

-Sanglap Kundu

UG1

As we all know our mother Earth is going through a historic yet unpleasant event due to the COVID-19 outbreak. While the whole world pledged to fight the pandemic with social distancing and quarantined life, there is still a high possibility of a second wave in winter season according to the National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration for COVID-19, VK Paul, and other research organizations and there are also cases of reinfection in few countries like UK, US. Now, many of us might be wondering that what’s next? How much this pandemic will affect our lives? Even if it ends, how long it will take everything to go back to normal? Or will it really be normal ever again? Let us find some of its effects.

Student life: As I'm witnessing the whole situation from a perspective of a student, I feel this pandemic will affect student life drastically. If someone is in school then he or she has to continue school and coaching online through phone or laptop or other technology and with technology comes distraction. So, it’ll be more difficult for them to focus on their studies. So, is it really possible to build a good interaction with teachers and competing with classmates online? I would probably say no. And kids who are new to this system are also caring about their learning process online but they are missing out on something that they shouldn't at this age that is a friend. So, can a kid learn everything only by consuming online content, no I don't think so? Just imagine what will they see down the memory lane when they grow up, just online videos, no friend, no fun in school, isn’t it horrifying?

And if we talk about college students, they are also continuing their courses online, but do we go to college only for our degree? In my opinion, college is the best palace to nourish yourself as a person, built an amazing peer group, and of course some memories, worth remembering. Will all these things come back or will they just fade away?

Mental health: when we feel physically disturbed, we take it seriously and we consult a doctor but on the other hand when we feel mentally disturbed, we ignore it, which we shouldn’t. In this quarantined world, social species like us have to maintain social distancing and in this hard time our only best friend is our phone or laptop but maybe they understand our instruction but they are not yet smart enough to understand our feelings. And for these issues, people are dealing with depression, anxiety, desolation like never before. And we are witnessing a humongous number of suicide cases, according to WHO there is a 3.4 % rise in suicide cases this year. So, basically, this virus has affected us physically also mentally.

Role of technology: Technology might not be able to avoid the onset of a pandemic, nevertheless, it can definitely assist in managing the crisis more effectively. Things like screening for infection, contact tracing, tracking are the gift of machine learning and AI. Baidu, a Chinese multinational company, has developed an AI-based solution to effectively screen large populations and detect a change in their body temperature while they are on thy move, which will help in examining and isolating the sick people and preventing a massive spread of the virus. Not only that, the whole process of learning is shifting online, so, new technologies are coming in this field too, maybe that day is not too far when we can experience the offline like learning from the comforts of our home the holograms. Besides that Indian government has also introduced a good UPI system, which will make online transactions and payment contactless and easy. Not only is this field technology is also leaving its mark in the field of entertainment, but the OTT platforms are also on a boom right now for this quarantine scenario, and apps like Netflix, amazon prime have made it possible. But the question that arises here is, do all these things have consequences? Are we moving forward to a machine-controlled world? Can all the frictional movies come to reality?

Economy: The outbreak of Covid-19 brought economic life to a standstill. The whole world is going through an economic predicament as sectors like MSMEs, aviation, capital markets. And due to this pandemic international and internal mobility is restricted and 9.2% of the GDP, contributed by tourism and traveling is now facing a crisis. The fiscal receipt could drop by at least 2% of GDP. The fiscal deficit could increase by 1-1.5% as predicted by economists. It has also affected the share market, as the investment and consumption both have gone down. Many people have lost their jobs, some of them also have no food to eat, no place to stay. Overall, these pandemics have led the economy to such a devastating place, that it will take years for things to back to normal again.

Sports: Covid-19 has spread its arm to every part of our life, and unfortunately, our favorite sports are not an exception. Though recently many events have organized like IPL, but do these games have grace without the fans? I don’t think so. All the noises of the crowd, the cheering will be missing from now on which is very disappointing for us as well as the players. Every sport from cricket, football to basketball and WWE, will be losing the charm as the secret ingredient, fans will be missing.

Where are we heading: we all are, for some reason, waiting for the year 2020 to end. But what is 2020 is just a trailer of upcoming scenario? There are reports of an outbreak of a new strain of the Sars-coV-2 virus in the UK. However, this new variant is not actually new, it was first detected in September. According to experts, this new variant is 70% more infectious than other variants of this virus. As a consequence, the lockdown has been announced in the UK. though few trials of some vaccines have succeeded so far, it may take up to a year to produce this large number of vaccines, as said by experts. So, it seems the end of 2020 might not be a very happy event.

But we are humans: This is a difficult situation, actually very difficult. But are they difficult enough to break us? No, absolutely not. We are humans, that’s what we do, face challenges. We are born to adapt. Maybe there is darkness, but we’ll light the fire. Maybe it is difficult to attend offline classes, but we will find a way to make online education much more interactive and fun. Maybe our mental health is in danger, but we will spread awareness about it and help each other to break the loneliness by connecting virtually and grow as a community. Maybe there are several crises, but we will find a way out of them because we have the blessing of technology and the power of inventions. Maybe the economy is in danger but we will find a way to recover it. Maybe the stadiums are empty at the moment, but our emotions are not. Maybe the place we are heading to is not very fascinating, but we will build on it. Because we are humans and we are born to adapt.