Happy Birthday COVID-19!
Patient 0 for the novel virus COVID-19 was admitted exactly a year back. So much has changed in a year. We ended 2019 thinking that it’s just another flu and won’t really affect the world. We ended the year thinking that 2020 was going to be THE year for all things good.
“India 2020: A vision for the New Millennium is a book co-authored by India’s 11th President A. P. J. Abdul Kalam who described the plan as follows: ‘Transforming the nation into a developed country, five areas in combination have been identified based on India’s core competence, natural resources and talented manpower for integrated action to double the growth rate of GDP and realise the Vision of Developed India’. ”
The realisation of the vision for India is probably pushed for another 20 years but following are the great things we did “realise” in the past year:
#1 Accessing the world through the screen
Zoom Calls became synonymous with video calls, how google became synonymous with searching online. We learnt to access the world from our living rooms. We were able to shift to technology, overcome the resistance to video calls and working from home and really get used to the future of communication. Ed-tech, Entertainment and Edutainment became the need of the hour to keep everyone sane, entertained and learning and the companies did a fine job at that. These fields opened up a new realm of learning and content absorption across the world.
“Around this time, a lot of experts opened up to giving back and teaching people across the world. In a short span of 4 months, Book A Workshop was able to create a community of 7500+ learners from 150 cities across 35 countries! That’s how much people wanted to learn and explore.” — Nidhi Agarwal, Founder & CEO at Book A Workshop.
#2 The world was healing
While we were all home wondering what to do and how to connect with the world outside, nature was starting to breathe again. NASA discovered that levels of carbon monoxide were 30–45 percent lower in the atmosphere. The biggest drop came with NO2 or nitrogen dioxide. NO2 levels were 22% lower than 2019. The largest hole in the Ozone layer spreading over 1 million square kilometres above the Arctic closed due to unusual atmospheric conditions.
#3 How much do we really need?
There is a certain amount of awareness and consciousness that humans were exposed to while in lockdown. We started buying things that were absolutely necessary. We were able to trim down the excess and really ask ourselves whether what we were buying was even needed. Wastage within homes was lesser because people had the time to think, understand and react accordingly.
#4 International Unity
In the time of crisis, the world came together and fought the common enemy. No matter what race, age, sex, place you were from, the virus could affect anyone. It was a big reminder that we are all human and we are all one. For the first time, countries set aside business interests and were discussing healthcare. Nations stood up for each other and offered help in these testing times.
#5 Time to be human
We are all stuck in a rat race. Our lives had become almost robotic before the lockdown. We woke up at a certain time, went to school/work, came back and slept. We would live from weekend to weekend, thoughtlessly. The lockdown forced us to take that sabbatical, really think about what we want to do, where we want to be, be human and feel like one too! A lot of people finally found time to learn the things they always wanted to, do the things they wanted to and complete their bucketlists.
“ I was Achyut Sir’s student 25 years back. Ever since, I have wanted to learn again from sir but whenever I came to India I couldn’t attend it because of the venue for the workshop or the time or something else. Finally after 25 years, I’m able to learn from him again sitting here in Toronto.”
- Anita Sakhuja (Toronto, Canada) told Book A Workshop
It’s been a year to remember, whether for all the good or bad or both. But one thing that this pandemic did teach us is that we have to constantly keep learning. Learning to survive. Learning to grow. Learning to evolve and realise our true potential.
Join our learner community at www.bookaworkshop.in and keep learning!
