IS THE NEW NORMAL REALLY NEW?

I have been thinking of writing this blog for a long time and I finally sat on my laptop to put my thoughts into words.

The discussion in this article shall revolve around the generic effects of “Novel-Corona Virus” also known as “COVID-19”. The novel corona virus is a new type of corona virus and has brought a whole lot of newness with it. After all, it is a novelty to stay indoors while being outdoors was the ‘old’ normal.

Before I begin dwelling on the topic, I want to make it clear that the present article though generic in nature, is not applicable to everyone.

For the purpose of this article, I am dividing this article into three phases — “Pre Corona Times” (which includes the phases that we have lived preceding the outbreak of the Novel-Corona Virus, which are further divisible into two parts, the ‘era of moderation’ and the ‘era of excesses’), “The Times of Corona”, (which includes every moment since the time of the present outbreak upto the time we have not seen yet) and “Post Corona Times”, (future).

The ‘Times of Corona’ commenced when the “imported Chinese Virus”, or the COVID-19 started its world tour, reaching other parts of the world from its epicentre, allegedly at Wuhan in China. This part is a well known fact, but what followed was unknown and beyond the imagination of human minds. At the same time, few thinkers, philosophers and astrologers (such as Baba Vanga, Nostradamus and Abhigya Anand) had allegedly already predicted or made prophecies about these times. The prophecies were obviously vaguely termed and can be interpreted to mean anything similar to or akin to the COVID-19 situation as is prevalent today. To my surprise, there is already a motion picture in Hollywood on this subject called “Contagion”, which released in 2011. Several scenes in the film are similar to the kind of situation being faced today in different parts of the world. Obviously, one can ask if the Chinese took ideas from the movie to make this virus. The theory which describes the spread of COVID-19 as a weapon of ‘Chinese Biological Warfare’ is still only being considered as one of the possibilities as also the other theories like the one which states that this virus is present in Bats or Pangolins and this is a case of ‘Animal to Human’ transmission. There was a similar virus which preceded the present one called as SARS which was linked to Bats and everyone was asked to check fruits for bat bites before they were consumed. It has also been theorized that nature is reclaiming its space and the humans are paying for their excesses. Having said all this, we still do not exactly know its origins and the thrust of this article is not to dwell over the origins at all.

It is the “Times of Corona”, pre and post which I would like to limit myself to. The present times being experienced, firsthand by many of us alike can be put broadly into two categories, ‘internal experience’ and ‘external experience’. The ‘external’ aspect for most people does not seem to matter as it is only related to the health workers, sanitary workers, essential item retailers and every other person who is expected to be on ‘ground zero’ in all the countries taking care of the people affected with the virus and people who require supplies on account of the lockdown. The internal aspect would include excessive time spent with the self, pets, family, spouses and partners, depending on where we were when the lockdown was announced. This is a time when some of us are indulging in self reflection and have taken time to sleep well, heal well as many do not have any marathons to run of any kind.

There have obviously been different government reactions to the outbreak of the COVID — 19 which has caused varied (there are countries with partial lock downs and there are countries with complete lock down as well) kinds of socio-economic and eco-political impact on each country. Hence, the external experience of, ‘The times of Corona’ vary across countries. The inner/ internal experiences at a human even though variable at minute levels broadly range between seeking counselling to being busy in a work from home situation, working out, making social media videos and attempting at being a contestant at the next master chef.

However, the two kinds of existences described above, one where we are together with the world (external) and the other where we are alone (internal) exist simultaneously and concentrically.

The biggest worry or lets say the most debated topic at this moment is, what next, what kind of world should we expect in “Post Corona Times”. Many are saying that there will be a new world, there will be a new approach to life. The problem with this expected or anticipated newness, I feel in this case is that it is not new. It could also be described like; a couple who fell in love, got married and then got divorced but found love in each other again. Their “new relationship” is new yet old. Why I say this is because of, what follows in the next paras and which is also the main thrust of the present article.

Let us first, take a look at the ‘era of moderation’ which was a time when people rarely purchased what they did not really need. If there was a need for something temporary it was either hired or borrowed. There was greater feeling of community. People stayed within reasonable limits, they lived a frugal life even if they had excess. The lives of people revolved around their families and very close friends. An occasional trip to the movies or a restaurant or an ice cream parlor was enough to make anyone happy and was called a ‘treat’. Parks were the norm, malls only an exception. I am sure everyone can recall this kind of a time which was not so long ago. When people did not go to gyms to work on their bodies and they ate as much as was required for them to get by. Home cooked food had more value and the food outside of the house was called as junk at all times. Hence, social distancing and moderation to save for a rainy day was a normal part of existence. People chose more conservative methods to save money in Banks. Purchasing a house was a priority and every other purchase was subsequent. The conservative ways of spending and the frugal ways of living with the minimalism including ‘re-use’ and ‘repair’. A time when saving more than you spent was a norm rather than an exception. This phase led to a time when a whole generation of people were benefited by the savings of their father, grand fathers and fore-fathers, which obviously led to an era of excesses.

The times of excess can be described best as living on EMIs, credits cards, where clubbing, pub going and dining out were the new normal. Friday nights were what an entire generation started living for and most people were broke by the end of the first two weeks of the month. Movie going was an activity for weekly entertainment and shopping till you drop was a way of life. The new investments were in the share markets and mutual funds which were volatile in nature. Travelling to expensive foreign locations was a part of this new normal. Gyms, personal trainers and fitness coaches were being afforded as everyone felt safe and secure in their corporate jobs and good pay packages.

Since, it is the difficult times which teach humans to save for rainy days; the time has come and at the moment appears to be here to stay a bit longer than expected. We are obviously back to where we were, the ‘era of moderation’, when people are buying only what they really need. The saying is that the ‘stock market is crashing because people are only buying what they need.’ The effect of this is also on the fact that once again people are compelled to invest in the older forms of savings like ‘recurring deposits’, ‘fixed deposits’, ‘pension schemes’, ‘saving accounts’. Share trading has been volatile. People have been losing more money than they had even invested. The meteoric rise in purchase of cars had already seen a slump and now it has come to a halt as people are re-planning and rethinking their lives in a new way which was the old normal. Hence, we move back to ‘moderation’ from ‘excesses’. If, someone thus, were to ask what will be the different, I would simply say, well nothing, its ‘old wine in a new bottle’. Once again the wheel of life will come full circle and we will be back to the old-new. This will obviously continue till such time that ‘we can go back to practicing social distancing on our own terms and the world finds a vaccine.

Shweta Kapoor