A glimpse into the Post Covid World - My Experience

It was an uneasy feeling getting ready to go to work, on the morning of 12th May 2020. It was 58 days since I last went to my office, and over 50 days since I went onto the main roads of Bangalore. Though I felt multiple times that working from home is difficult, the comfortable routine of not having to drive for 2 hours a day, being able to spend more time with my wife and son, are something not easy to suddenly stop. I finally started to drive, and an unusual excitement of being able to finally get back to work, overtook the uneasiness.

Bangalore felt different from the city that I lived in for the past five years. In just 60 days, Covid19 and the lockdown changed the world in many ways, and many things may not be the same anymore. In this post, I try to capture some of my first feelings of how things seemed different, in the Post Covid World. 

As I drove past the end of my street and onto the main road, the uncle who always had a cart of tender coconuts was missing. In the next junction, the familiar Hindi speaking family with men, women, kids, who sold everything from balloons, to mobile phone cases to utensils, were missing. As I went past Koramangala, familiar sight of a woman in her 70's, asking for money and thanking those who gave her money in flawless English, was missing. All of them would have been hit very hard by Covid. I only hope that they are safe during this crisis, and found help wherever they are. 

Post Covid world is a masked world. Masks are now mandatory in India, and also in most countries around the world. As someone said, it is unfortunate that we have to wear a mask to breathe, when the air is the cleanest in the last few years. There is a definite sense of fear in meeting people, even amongst friends or colleagues. People have a constant proximity alert, and are maintaining distancing consciously. It is great that people have taken the message of social distancing seriously, the constant fear and suspicion is just sad. (Photo not shot by me)

The usually buzzing Koramangala was calm, silent, at 6PM. Home to some of the best hangout places in the city, it was a sight that no one would have expected ever. The restaurants and all dine-in places are under mandatory shutdown till the 17th of May; but even after they open, Covid 19 would change the way we hangout. The familiar sight of overflowing pubs, coffee shops, may just remain the thing of the past.

I felt covid made us more disciplined. One noticeable sight to see discipline is queues, everywhere. Starting from kirana shops to road side fruit vendors. With the population of India, and the population density in cities, I never remember standing in a queue, without being constantly pushed by the person behind. Covid managed to teach us how to stand in queue, with minimum contact with the person in front. Some of the other things like spitting in public places is banned, after Covid. These are definite welcome changes of Covid. 

I could see people walking, on main roads and interior roads alike. With no public transport, and to have to get to work, it is a sad sight to see scores of people just walking with no end in sight. I can only imagine the plight the migrant workers went through, walking hundreds of Kilometres to get home. Even after public transport and shared transport companies start operating, it is imperative that the num of people per vehicle would drastically come down because of physical distancing norms. Does that mean people would shift to personal transport. May be; but the question is can Indian cities take so many vehicles. In the gig economy, where having no personal vehicle and just doing Ola/Uber to work was a thing, we just have to wait and watch as to how this space will evolve.