Chennai: By now we are not new to lockdowns, actually we have lost count of their numbers or their variations on conditions, timings, travel restrictions, supplies etc.
The incredible Indians will learn to survive and move on. But is it impossible to administer smart or intelligent lockdowns, asks management expert professor Vijaykumar Jayaram (VKJ).
He says, “India’s majority is from the un-recognised sector, I will not say they are an un-organised set of small time traders like roadside cobblers, tailors, flower-vendors etc. Now with prolonged lockdowns they are going to economically-bleed and with their little savings gone they should not take a wrong or violent path. It is obvious that the police obedience in implementing their orders will appear to be heartless to such people instigating them to retaliate,” VKJ adds.
“Besides surviving this horrible epidemic an equally terrible situation lies in procuring essential goods or services like patient/baby care, plumbing or electrical gadget repair services.”
He says to buy or not to buy, there are a few tough day-to-day decisions we have to make. They include buying additional milk packets and storing in the freezer but the power can get disrupted for hours together anytime due to cyclonic or other man-made conditions.
To decide on headache or body pain as a Covid symptom or buy a pain killer from the medical shop, auto repair, textile ready-made, electrical shops being closed, the question to buy or not to buy – under garments, kerchiefs or even a toilet light bulb can be equally confusing and amusing to neighbours who do not face that predicament for that moment. To avoid crowds which is the best time to shop? Early morning 6 am, 10 am or sometime in between. God knows as the mass behaviour and buying patterns are like the frequency of our metro buses.
Door mats, Cobweb duster poles and many items are of the pick and choose type and the options available online are not suitable for Indian terrain or heat and dust conditions. Just wondering if all our senior citizens living alone with kids abroad or our rural brothers and sisters are capable of online browsing and purchase?
To go to bank branch or not? Some of our Indian banks need customers to come to the branch for securing a new Pin/card. Forget old timers, what about the new ones ready to launch on to Digi-India? And finally should I buy an online course or not? Or to go for a regular one in future? With the supposedly new world order being formed and with the breaking down of educational and employment boundaries online shopping or investments can be appear to be a meltdown. Now again this list can get endless, says VKJ.
On the whole one wonders how a virus that can be handwashed is able to hold an approx. $5 trillion economy and 1.4 billion nation to ransom?, he questions.
After mulling over the above one can ask these questions. How come so many people are easily affected? Can’t you see the number of people dying out there? Can’t you see the helpless situation? Can’t you see all the government machinery giving their peak performance with their full potential?, he adds.
The answer to the above – Suppose the methodology in treating is the best why are so many people dying? And if the methods are not effective enough what is the block in thinking laterally or in thinking from the beginning to save people?
Last year we watched the number of body-bags piling up on the streets of NY, UK and Italy. What have we learnt? What have we investigated upon? How have we prepared the public? What are our plans next year? How smart are the present day lockdowns from the previous ones?
An Indian logic from our ancient land says if a stupid person can understand an intelligent subject they rise in life! And if an intelligent person understands and yet follows a stupid subject they will most certainly fall! In other words all intelligence fails when it follows a stupid or wrong path. And we should never
underestimate the power of stupidity particularly when it is in large numbers, he says and adds, a change in action or a modification in thoughts implies learning. If there is no change then there has been no learning.
Learning in a person or in a society is always followed by their respective changes, he winds up.