The "new norm"

Covid-19 is not just the talk of the town but its talk of the world now. It has brought in lot more changes and challenges in our life. Its throwing a strong message on us that life is not going to be the same going forward. We are getting into a "new norm". I have been musing about the new norm and felt like noting it down in my blog. 

Lock-down, shelter-in-place or whatever we want to call it, has made us all work from home. I don't have experience leaving my kids in day care as I had my sweet in-laws taking good care of them but now with the prevalent nuclear family, its a mandatory task to drop kids in day care before going to work. A typical working young mom has this tension everyday : wake up kids, get them ready, pack their snacks, pampering them to be good at the day care and bidding a "bye bye" by swallowing both the agony and cry! Is it time for the employers to give a mandatory work from home option for young moms till their kids enter the age of schooling?

While some of the working sector is struggling to adapt to this remote working situation, its actually business-as-usual or smooth ride for the IT sector, I guess. Deliverable and meetings are happening without hiccups, blame or praise the technology supporting it. The huge buildings, tech parks built for IT sector are literally empty now! Is it time for IT giants to stop grabbing lands to build new software parks and give away existing huge buildings to hospitals and shelter for the homeless?

There is a message floating around in social media to show a mountain range that was not visible from roof tops for years together. Air quality improvement has enabled it, thanks to less traffic on land and sky. Animals and birds are roaming around fearlessly. I could hear chirping of birds more than the dashing sound of traffic now. Is it time for us to think about how we can reduce our day-to-day traffic, weekly/monthly/yearly travel?

Covid-19 is making us enjoy home food and appreciate the nutrition available in natural food. We could enjoy it because there is a supply of groceries needed, just saying thanks is not enough for the farmers. I am not an economy person but capable of understanding that its going down. There is a huge cry on the stocks value going down and a deep worry on what's going to happen to our investments. Is it time to invest our money on agriculture instead of putting it in non-essentials?

There is a big talk on the journey that we need to take into self during this challenging time and am also doing it. It is revealing many things to me, the items that I considered as needed or critical before are moving to the category of "not so needed". My urge to shop, to visit places, to eat variety food are actually going down. Is it time for me to reduce my time on enjoyment and focus my energy towards inner self?

Disclaimer : My musings are solely mine and I have just used my freedom of expression.