For time immemorial, there has been this deep desire to be superhuman; have para normal abilities, mostly uncultivated. There has been a constant desire to conquer nature. People from across the world, for their few moments of bravado, claim how they beat nature or survived its wrath.

Mountaineers post pictures at Mt Everest saying they captured the tallest mountain in the world. Deep sea divers rejoice at reaching great depths in free diving competitions. Cars are sent into space. Animals are used for testing. Viruses are produced in labs. There had to be a Pay back time. And that is what we are living, these days.

In the last few days, work has stopped, needs have diminished, time has reappeared. It has given me time to sit and do nothing. The influx of social media meandering about the Corona virus and the pandemic has driven me away from social media. I find that my screen time has drastically reduced. I have this inherent need to protect myself, not only from the virus, but also the barrage of information that is going around town. I do not want to talk about the virus. I do not want to talk about our fate by the end of this pandemic. I want to sit and observe.

I am sharing some of these observations.

The air is cleaner, for sure.

I was walking my dogs on a 50 meter stretch of road just outside my house, at night, two days back. There is a tree just next to a street light at the end of the lane. For the last 4-5 years, I have observed these tiny particles in the air that become visible with the street light. Sometimes these particulate matter is so dense that the leaves of the tree appeared hazy. Not any more. In Delhi, the AQI levels are ranging from 70 – 120 past these days. As I write this, the AQI is 67. Living in Delhi, these numbers almost sound unreal. We are used to the range of 250 – 999. Plus there is no construction and there is less/no traffic.

I wake up to the constant chattering of the birds.

From my balcony, you can observe various species of birds like the Black Drongo, Pigeons, Common Mynahs, Pariah Kites, tones of Rose Ringed Parrots, Indian Rollers, Laughing Doves, Koels and an occasional Shikra. It’s such a pleasure to wake up to this chitter chatter. With all the infrasouds in the atmosphere and human involvement, one hardly gets to hear a cacophony of birds, any more. Try identifying the bird calls that you can hear.

The animals are out.

Whilst my two beagles can’t get over the fact that I am at home, all the time, the dolphins have returned in Mumbai waters, the swans returned in Italy, the Neelgai is seen in Noida; sometimes I feel that they are thanking us for remaining inside so they can roam around freely. The waters are cleaner for the fish to swim. There is lesser pollution everywhere and animals are just rejoicing. They seem the happiest. The cats are a different story.

It’s such an irony.

The only way we can enjoy this beautiful dance of nature is by staying inside and not interfering. We are the only species that have spoiled everything we have touched. Our human involvement can be compared to Midas’s touch: gone completely wrong.

We are scared

We are scared of getting infected, infecting our loved ones, loss of income or loss of meaning; loss of safety both at a micro and a macro level. This loss of safety is what we are going through in the form of anticipatory grief. And as a community, and more over as a world community, we have not experienced grief, ever before, collectively. Elisabeth Kubler Ross first identified the five stages in her book, On Death and Dying published in 1969.

There are 5 stages that Elisabeth Kubler Ross wrote about, and we might be going through all of some or one of them:

We get to spend much needed time with our family.

We have become oblivious to connection. If an employee devotes 20 hours of his or her life for the company, then it has to definitely take a toll on their personal lives. The breakup of 20 hours is ( 10 hours work, 2 hours travel, 8 hours of sleep), incase you were wondering. During this crises, we are at home with our families or with friends. I see videos and posts of families posting photographs, singing and dancing together. There is a connection; a reignited one and is such a joy to watch. I often see a young kid living across me whose parents are working professionals. I haven’t seen the parents more than 5 times. Today morning, for the 20th time, I saw them talking and playing together.

We are forced to spend time with ourselves.

We have stopped. In order to realign ourselves, this is required. Even if you are living with other people at home, this period is also forcing us to spend time with ourselves to conserve our energy and also refuel ourselves. This can be tricky for people who are Extraverts (not extroverts). Extraverts need the outside world to replenish their energies and refuel themselves. Intraverts need to go within. Whilst, these are extraordinary times, even the intraverts would be feeling a need to spend their replenished energies, extraverts are finding it tough.

A lot of people are being thrown off their ivory tower.

There is no one to control. The designations don’t matter as of today. Most paths of knowledge systems that executives bank on, for their daily functioning, are for normal course of days. Even if there is fire fighting required, it is for most manageable situations. This time is extraordinary. Our minds were not really geared for an international shut down. Humans are under duress. Processes fail without people. A lot of people who were always “unavailable” are now “available”.

The online world

These days, the online world has become the epicentre of meeting each other. It’s like the city centre. In old times, whenever anything needed to be announced, it used to be done at city centres and in villages, under the Banyan tree. Today Facebook, Linkedin, Instagram and other social media have become the Banyan trees for everyone.

Compassion in abundance

Compassion exists in this world and we get to experience and see this now. It’s so overwhelming to see how people are coming forward to help in every possible way especially towards the lesser privileged. In the security company that I also run, a lot of clients came forward to help the security personnel guarding their offices and residences. They have provided accommodation to the guards, they provide them meals. Some of our clients have told the guards to not come for duty but promise to pay their salaries. People are offering help for the elderly, online consultations for people with anxiety and other mental health issues, food for the poor, food and water for birds and animals; the list goes on. These are some wonderful examples of how people are supporting and helping each other; being compassionate towards the existence of another living being.

Vikram Badhwar, CEO, Syngrity, is a communications coach, an experiential educator, and an artist trying to bridge the gap between the creative and the analytical side of our brain. He consults individuals and teams in the space of learning & development to enable transformations at a personal, professional and organizational level.