Corona Talkies - Day 31

Third post in corona talkies. None of the post has anything to do with a movie or theatre but instead can be passed as a random note. With Lockdown 2.0 announcement by PMO India, what started as a 21 day confinement has turned into a 40 day no-outdoor-activity/no-social-gathering event. This also gave opportunity to observe and ponder over few aspects - 

• I was talking with few of my friends who happen to stay at their workplace which is far away from places (well any place within city itself is too far considering lockdown but worry had higher intensity with city, state and country boundary based distance) where their parents are staying during lockdown. I am sure worries will be at both the end at the moment but for a change child's also started worrying about parents which was only parent's past time earlier. Probably, extra time at hand at each end to think how possibly things can go wrong brought those worrying feelings at forefront. 
• I have tagged myself during lockdown with an old couple who happen to stay in apartment block so as to ensure that they get their daily grocery needs sorted without them being stepping out of apartment premise. While I wasn't really going out specifically for any of their asks but instead clubbing their request along-with items which I had to buy anyways. But interestingly, during each visit to handover something, I get to hear that how much trouble I am taking for them and how thankful they are for this gesture. It's good feeling nonetheless to assist someone but repeated thank you note is certainly embarrassing.
• This lockdown gave opportunity to listen to constant chatter from kid and also closely observe their behaviour. Noticed kid mimicking my own action and behaviour at each point and also helped to understand why they do what they do. This creates an additional burden (yes, burden) to do the right thing or guide them to do right thing keeping aside your own insecurities and lack of confidence to do that task. Probably, a leader role where leader themselves aren't really capable to do the thing on own at first instance (or they never achieve) but then convert their fears into confidence to get many more those who are following him/her achieve the tasks for greater good. Life is really interesting
• For some reason there is an increased emphasis on learning during lockdown. Why not all the time and what stops people during regular time? Or this is just the IN thing, that one thing to show-off?

On side note - 78 episode (35 minutes each) of Ramayan got over but Corona didn't and looks like stop loss set with 96 episode (60 minutes each) of Mahabharat too will go for toss. Corona waiting for Shaktiman (450 episode of 30 minutes each) to get over will probably be catastrophe far beyond negative crude futures price or Franklin templeton 6 debt funds going dry. Later actually reminded me about Third curve lecture shared by Mansoor khan during PGSEM inauguration.

To end - encountering daily with below statements and not necessarily in office conference calls - 

• Are you guys able to see my screen? 
• Is my screen visible?
• hellooooo! am I audible? 
• Can everyone go on mute please? 
• Those who are not talking kindly go on mute?

On last 2 points - people are most likely doing this just for fun part of it. Else, how come they keep their line unmute even after explicit muting by the host. It is comedy to see how host struggles in each call to get people muted explicitly and work through comments thrown on corrective measures by some of the participants in chat window. ;-)

P.S. - Another incoherent and random post. This post was supposed to go live on Lockdown day#25 but for some reason or other I couldn't put the content after starting with it. Not that it makes any difference to reader but for me to remind that I keep pushing few things forward. Ideally those items should be closed then and there.

Life at time of corona

As saying goes - hard time teaches the most valuable lessons and brings us together. This pandemic and resulting lockdown brought entirely new perspective on community living, family, colleagues, friends. While nothing really changed from deliverable's/work perspective as if world is still the same but how we communicate with each other did changed. On side note, received a quote from whatsapp university which says - "If you would like to know how it feels to be a IT Employee during the Novel coronavirus pandemic… Remember when the Titanic was sinking and the band continued to play? - We’re the band". Interestingly, similar kind of customised quotes were being forwarded for bank,  healthcare, hospitality, police, retailer employee's, etc. Which made me think probably all of us were part of band and no one was taking care of ship which led to sinking of the ship. Few might have watched Titanic followed by these forwards, if they have not watched in past. Some extra revenue for streaming portals. ;-)

On professional front, each touch-points with colleagues/team/client typically started with small talk on - how everyone is doing and whether all was OK at their end unlike pre-lockdown phase where meetings mostly started with set agenda. On personal front, realisation of fact that movement is blocked intracity itself, forget about intercity/state/country was worrying with parents away. Those familial concerns became prominent which I didn’t observed before came in forefront. Similar worries of friends/office colleagues for their siblings/parents were noticeable too.

Me and my wife being at home at same time during day meant weekend for my preschooler kid, there was constant nudge during initial days from his end to go out to his cousin's house as per the usual routine for each weekend. It was a challenge to make him understand that it's a regular work day and we can't go out anywhere because there are no transport means. Obviously, incessant calls/meetings for both my wife and mine made it easy and helped him to understand the fact that it is working day and parents are not going out as something wrong outside. He too gradually found new ways to engage himself and thankfully with daily traffic game (queued toys) which he played, I don't think I have missed Bangalore traffic at all.

Once adjusted to new normal, predictability returned in day and had some free time to listen to son's chatter and reasoning’s that why I should be playing with him more or even write something on blog page which was crying for some posts since past many years. I have become more appreciative of efforts which my wife put at work/home (well, it was mutual and will probably help in future) and made an attempt to distribute house chores among ourselves to avoid anyone burning out. Now we are truly 'maid' for each other. Took some master class on blockchain, enterprise architecture and Heroku when had opportunity to take them. Last but not the least, rearranged the bookshelf and placed books at key locations to get ample cues to pick and read those half read books which certainly helped.

To end, taking multiple perspectives into consideration’s Dicken’s quote is certainly relevant now - It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..

P.S. - This is unabridged version of writeup which I shared with for my unit newsletter.