Ain't it strange? Ain't it unusual to title the blog post like this? I mean in perspective of year 2020? In the perspective of the pandemic? No, it is not!
The entire world, the entire humanity is struggling against this pandemic, and here I am saying that the first of its kind disease is a blessing? Have I lost my senses, you might ask. And my answer is, "No, I am all in my sense. And I have titled this blog post knowingly." Now let me be little verbose to tell you why I say this.
In the beginning of this year, India as a country had started getting the feel of what the Corona Virus is and what havoc it could cause. Yet we were ignorant about it thinking it won't hit our doorsteps as there are many things in Indian Culture that generally keep our immunity levels high. Yes that is true and that is the reason why the mortality rate due to COVID is so less in India, I feel. However, there were things related to personal discipline which caused the spread of the disease so much, I feel. But I am not here to talk about that, talk about the the dark side of the pandemic. Many others are taking care of that. I am going to talk about the bright side.
Since I am from the building construction industry, let me start with an example related to that. To construct a full fledged multi specialty kind of hospital, it takes about two years and these two years do not include the time required to prepare its architectural and engineering designs. However, this year we saw COVID centers being constructed and being operational in matter of a few weeks. The engineers and architects were forced to think differently as it was required to have many additional COVID specific treatment centers looking at the spread of the disease like a jungle fire! Many different construction methods were adopted which were never thought of till mid 2019. Can't these methods be used in the future for construction of buildings to save time and many other resources? Is that not a blessing in disguise?
India and the entire world was under lockdown, we all experienced it. And it had it's wrath on the small and medium businesses, the way it had, we saw. But I know many instances that loss of job due to lockdown made people think differently and become entrepreneurs, become self employed. Some of my friends who are in IT and engineering field started selling vegetables. Some other honed their culinary skills and started preparing and selling small ready to eat food items. And some others started some different businesses. Now, after unlock, though their jobs are restored, people are earning less salary than usual. However their monthly household expenses are either at the level they were in early 2020 or have increased due to general price hikes! And these entrepreneurial skills are coming handy to them to increase their income. This is blessing in disguise that ordinary people started thinking differently to bridge the gap between their income reduced due to salary cut and increased expenses.
I know one shop owner near my house who is a franchise of a popular bakery brand in Pune and till early this year he was selling only their products and eggs to some extent. At the onset of the lockdown he realised that people cannot go to shops and super stores far away from their homes to buy daily essentials. As such he started selling milk and milk products of different popular brands, other sundry things like wafers, noodles, chocolates along with vegetables. He purchased two large capacity deep freezers to store these items. Here he understood and recognised the need of the time and many daily needs of the people in our locality were available with him from April this year and if anything is not available, he makes sure that it is there the next day! He was accepting only cash payments till lockdown but he understood the importance of being 'touch free' and started accepting payments over UPI by letting his customers scan a QR code displayed in the shop to make payments. Isn't this different way of thinking by this shop owner a blessing in disguise for his customers? Now, people in our locality are so accustomed with this shop that, even in the unlock days, they are depending on his for such products.
Many corporate companies in India were kind of against work from home culture thinking it would reduce productivity and employees also were against it as they thought theirs bosses would expect them to be available on call 24x7 as they will be working from the comfort of their homes. Yes, to some extents it is true. However, work from home became a reality in India due to the fact that one cannot commute for work and yet the business has to run! Not to mention, due to the norms of safe physical distance number of work stations in a company's office also must have been reduced to half, work area or habitable area of the office being the same! Now for those who used to drive their own vehicle to their workplace, they saved a lot of money they otherwise would have spent on fuel. Those who commuted to work using public transport, they saved themselves from getting crushed in the rush of trains and buses. Now, work from home is going to be a prevalent thing and businesses have started adopting themselves for it.
Here I would like to quote example of my cousin who owns a famous furniture shop in town side of Pune. Little over a month ago, I had been to his shop to buy a table and chair for my office. He shared an interesting piece of information. He said that many people came to his shop to buy some office type furniture in their homes as their employer companies had sanctioned a considerable amount per employee to buy such furniture and set up broadband internet at their homes. Thus, those employees did not have to shell out a small fortune from their bank accounts to buy the furniture and the employers could get proper work from their employees. This again is a blessing in disguise that the culture of work from home is growing in India which will save lot of fuel and efforts of employees and employers and yet their businesses will function effortlessly and even more effectively. Isn't it?
I also know a situation where a businessman unfortunately passed away due to COVID and his better half, a house wife till that point of time and mother of a budding engineer, took up the challenge to run the very same business. She is so geared up that she went out to look for some one from the same profession who would teach her basic skills and give her knowledge required to understand and run that particular business. Her husband was the only bread winner for their family and he being not around would have caused a havoc on the family. But she did not loose it. She gathered all the courage required and is now on her path to run the very same business, under guidance of the gentleman who is helping her learn the nuances of the business. That particular type of business requires support from many ancillary enterprises. I also know some other professionals who own and run such similar ancillaries, who are helping this lady in the ways and means they can! Here I must mention that she was not at all involved in the daily chores of that business neither her educational background is what is required for being in that profession. However, it is sheer will power that is driving her to run that business. She goes to their office everyday and in the evenings she is learning that skill and acquiring the required knowledge from that gentleman via online classes. I will not call this as blessing in disguise but it most certainly is a brighter side which I must mention. My good wishes with her and with the gentleman who is guiding her the way he can.
By grace of The God and because of the trust my clients have on me and my way of fulfilling their requirements, I got some repeat business from the same clients. I also have to think differently! So I started a Facebook Page of Apte Consultants. There in I wrote a post that I require CAD experts to prepare drawings and I got many responses from there. Two among those were my old colleagues and now they are working for me. One of them is some 200 km away from me and the other is more than 400 km away! Now this distance itself is a blessing in disguise that we are lot away from each other than the recommended norms of the safe distance, yet the internet has brought us closer and is helping us work like we used to work a few years ago.
These are some examples I could think of which to make my point that this pandemic can be also be a blessing in disguise. The only thing required is thinking different, thinking in the way you never otherwise would have.
When the going gets tough, the tough gets going! Cliched, isn't it? It most certainly is, bit at the same time it is the need of the time!
I hereby end this blog post with a hope that people will put on their thinking shoes and come up with some brilliant ideas to survive these testing times, and emerge victorious!
06/12/2020
Pune
Day Three hundred and Forty First
Page Three hundred and Forty First
