Yes. It is a pandemic
It is killing many, affecting everyone, and changing all. We are marking the anniversary of the Novel Coronavirus. As of now, the commoner’s world is still on the back foot. With the unannounced spread of corona virus, our world has pressed the survival button. Masks came on, travels cancelled, abodes of fun and entertainment blew the shutting-down whistle; self imposed and state imposed lockdown is in place. First it was all about enduring the lockdown; then we found ways to live life in lockdown, content with its options; we moved further, searched for new possibilities, and we had some success too; now we perhaps are settling down, believing it is the new normal.

The defining decade of the century
The defining event of the third decade of this century has happened already in the very first few months. This is the corona virus decade, unless something more sever happens, which surely cannot be ruled out with the world-powers becoming more and more irresponsibly controlling; and the emerging world-powers are impulsively claiming their space. This is the defining decade of the century because this will be a decade of serious changes. Some changes are for better, and others, we never know. Better watch out as to which direction is the world changing?

Money and global supremacy
The virus originated in Wuhan. Did they create it? Is it a part of a political design which will rule this century? Currently, no tests are available to say anything conclusively. Even if we had a testing kit, and could test it, and the result is negative; one thing is clear, China is least bothered, it is making hay when the sun is bright. China is skillfully maneuvering itself into the spaces the U.S. is leaving behind in international affairs and organizations. When United States, in the midst of the Covid-19 blow stopped payments to the World Health Organisation, China was only too happy to do the needful. The U.S under Trump withdrew from the Paris Climate Accord and other international meaningful engagements. As Spiegel International establishes, China wants to once again secure a place for itself on the world stage. The Chinese Empire lasted more than 2,000 years and for several centuries, it was one of the world's largest economic powers, alongside India. That empire declined only in the 19th century; and in the early 20th century, the nearly 300-year-old Qing Dynasty came to and end. What followed were decades of chaos and decline. It wasn't until the opening of China under Deng Xiaoping in the 1970s that the stage was set for an unprecedented resurgence. Will this be a Chinese century?

Rethinking religion and its practices
Churches, temples, mosques etc. were closed to people gathering in numbers. The mode of people praying; and priests’ performance of routines were interrupted. One of the not so rare questions people ask me is, do you miss the regular church gatherings and its numerous happenings? If I don’t take time to tactfully process the answer, I might spontaneously and impulsively answer, no; and would add, not missing them, in fact, escaping them (at least some of them for sure). But to be diplomatically right, which is the ultimate virtue of any upright institution, I answer with a sigh, yeah, just waiting for everything to return to normalcy. Without delay, I scoot from the place. I get back to my still partially locked-down friary, retreat to my little cell; I realize the question hasn’t left me. I try leaving it, but can’t escape it that easily. Do you really miss the church? I guess this question is real about any customary religious establishments.

Religion, as we have known it, has made everything so fixed, so predictable, so conclusive, from birth to death, from men to women and everything in between, from opinions to ideologies, from probabilities to expectations, from healings to salvation. Walking on the fixed, predictable, conclusive path is not anything less than suffocation for a person of faith and creativity. Yet most religions have the inbuilt mechanism to suggest such suffocation as a way to salvation.

Covid-19 is creating an anomaly. We may discover our God anew. We may be forced to walk a different path; a path, which may not lead people to those massive structures of worship anymore. Are we not hearing the heavy sound of falling worship houses. After they fall, we would possibly hear the chaste sound of people worshipping.

There are two reformers in history, who wished and foretold the end of worship houses. One is an Indian, Sri Narayana Guru, who worked against the innate injustices in the cast-ridden society in Kerala, suggested to build no more temples for any caste, for they become, by default, places of exclusion. I/we building a structure for me and for us automatically creates them and they. Second is Jesus who firmly declared to a woman, there will come a time when humanity will worship neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem (Jerusalem Temple), but true worshippers will worship God in spirit and truth. Yes. More churches will give rise to more temples and more mosques, and visa versa; the chain will go on. They have real possibilities of perpetuating structures of exclusion. As in the case of the virus, here too, it is time to break the chain.

An explosion in remote learning, but are all included?
The ability to teach and learn online is very powerful. Bringing in professionals, experts, and guest faculties from across the globe to a virtual classroom is relatively easy. The range of online resources is almost infinite. Distance shrinks with the platform for those who are able to connect. And for those who do not have access to the world of internet, the day is as dark as the night. With the explosion in remote learning, the digital divide also is disturbingly growing. According to the statistics available with UNICEF, 188 countries imposed countrywide school closures during the pandemic, affecting more than 1.6 billion children and youth. Even prior to the pandemic, however, children’s learning was in crisis, and the pandemic has only sharpened these injustices, hitting schoolchildren in poorer countries particularly hard. Globally, many schools lack the resources to invest in digital learning, and many children from poorer households do not have Internet access. At least a third of the world’s schoolchildren, 463 million children globally, were unable to access remote learning when COVID-19 closed their schools.

Look at an Indian case study by BBC. Mahima and Ananya are in the same class at a small private school in the northern Indian state of Punjab. Teachers describe them both as ‘brilliant’ students, but ever since classes moved online, they have found themselves on opposite sides of India's digital divide. Ananya, who lives in an urban area, has wi-fi at home, and says she is able to log in to her classes and follow them easily. But for Mahima, who lives in a village, it has been a frustrating experience. Mahima has no home wi-fi. Instead she relies on her mobile phone's 4G signal, a common source of internet across rural and small-town India. She gets phone signal only on the terrace of her house, so Mahima often has no choice but to study there in the searing heat. Even then, she says, she may or may not be able to join the classes online. Added to it, Mahima’s home gets electricity only for a few hours a day, so keeping the phone charged is also an issue. "I have barely attended 10-12 classes in the last one and half months. At times I feel like crying because of the backlog. I am so behind the syllabus", laments Mahima. She is not alone; it is the lament of 463 million students globally.

The internet device most Indians use is a mobile phone - so many students follow classes on cheap phones rather than laptops. Many poor households have only one phone, and access to it is unreliable. And then there are those who can't afford any device at all.

In many situations, despite remote learning facilities and the presence of the necessary technology at home, children are unable to learn because the teachers are less skilled to carry out effective online classes, or parents at home do not show support and interest. Though national governments around the world have been quick to implement remote learning, new health protocols, and reopening plans, these policies have varied widely based on each country’s wealth. School children in the poorest countries have already lost nearly the entire year of schooling since the start of the pandemic, compared to six weeks (that happened in the beginning) in high-income countries. Even short disruptions in children’s schooling can have long-lasting negative impacts.

The miseries of poor children do not end at not being able to attend online classes during the lockdown. School closures have led to an increase in child marriage and child labour which often prevent children from continuing their education altogether. The Hindu released the embarrassing fact of over 100 cases of child marriages in Mysore district alone from March 2020 (the time when lockdown began) to August 2020. It is only the tip of the iceberg. If over 100 such instances have come to the notice of the authorities just from one district, how many more may have taken place secretly? In India the children have to cross a lot of obstacles just to be able to attend school, leave alone the luxury and comfort of online classes.

Social etiquettes and behaviours
The ways we learn, work and interact with others with social distancing protocol have led to a more virtual existence. Some changes that we adopted in order to survive the pandemic is here to stay for good. I can already see strong indications of it as we begin to go to work physically as the government initiated the unlock process. When scheduling meetings for work people without fail ask, ‘Do we really have to meet in person?’ Which is not something we used to hear before. People are going to continue to reduce physical meetings and business travels. People might travel only for pleasure or for family reasons. Plagues, epidemics and pandemics have taught humanity more lasting lessons on hygiene and healthcare etiquettes than textbooks and classes. It was the 1918 Spanish flu killing 50 million people, which made spitting in public unlawful, covering once cough became common courtesy etc. But humanity often suffers from loss of memory. As soon as the pandemic is over we are going to say, ‘it is all over and we are not going to have another in our life time’.

Come home to the changed world
Taking a cue from Elisabeth Kübler-Ross’s five stages of grief, we may deny, be angry, bargain, and be depressed as we deal with the pandemic. But sooner or later we will realise we are only delaying the inescapable coming home. The answer is in understanding and accepting the situation, without losing heart. Though not same as before, it is going to be okay. As great Socrates perceived it, “the secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new.” This is an attitude and disposition that come with calm and composed view of reality and existence, with stable condition of emotions, and with plenty of hope. Fred McFeely Rogers outlined hope as having the firm belief that “when you think you’re at the end of something, you’re at the beginning of something else.” To see the new beginning, we must survive the old. Let us join the Covid-19 warriors, wear masks, wash hands, sanitise, keep distance, break the chain, and survive.

Christmas the latest causality
Our world, especially India, minus its festivities is bland. Festivals add colours and entertainments to all across age groups. Covid-19 has taken the festivities away. We reminisced Ganesh Chaturthi, Eid ui-Fitr, Buddha Jayanti, Easter, and even our Independence Day sitting behind closed doors. Christmas appears to be following suit. Christmas, as always, has been a season of celebration for all, from business enterprisers to faith filled devotees. The first Christmas was a story of faith, endurance, and survival for Mary, Joseph and Jesus. Perhaps it is a fitting time to remember the first Christmas. Wishing you all a Christmas like faith, endurance and survival.∎

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