No matter what we think about the virus, from where it came how it came and who can be blamed or not, all of that really pales when you try to assess what is that the Virus has taught us the real hard way and ironically enough, these are the same lessons that all earlier calamities and challenges faced by humanity on a global scale have brought along with them, and like every time, history is forgotten in the greed for creating new economics and geography, putting us all in the direct path of oncoming peril- which then becomes a question of not, if such an incident will happen , but rather more about how and when it will happen!

Arrogance is vain: Human history is replete with examples where arrogance has been proven time and again to be as vain as it can be. Y:et our own choice to selectively delete important lessons from history often ends up leading us to repeat the same mistakes and that’s why History repeats itself! Whether it is the arrogance of an individual about not wanting to mask up or that of a government to claim everything is under control- the virus doesn’t care a damn and given an opportunity it will do what is is supposed to do- unlike humans, the virus’s choice and approach is singular and focussed- that of to infect. We ironically entangle ourselves into this space not realizing the potency of a microscopic organism and our mountain high ego’s and arrogance is the last thing that can ever help us! Whether to mask or not, you may want to debate, you may want to debate about the jabs, but for doing any of that, you need to be alive and that you can be- only when you shun the unrewarding arrogance around the virus and learn to accept a few things with a pinch of salt even though you run the risk of burning your ego!

Quality of Leadership matters: Every society is a reflection of the broader collection of it’s constituents. The quality of choices we make as individuals, translates collectively and this collective quality throws up leaders who we deserve. The one thing that the pandemic has exposed in a very uncomfortable way is the gradient of incompetence when it comes to leadership across levels and across segments of the society. The gross mis-management, wrong people at the right places and misplaced priorities and actions are all but a reflection of the quality of leadership! Whether it is about dealing with a virus or sending a spaceship into heavens above, as long as an Incompetent, myopic and faltering leadership leads, the results almost always will be disastrous.

Collaborative Trust: Whether you are a nation, the dozens of different agencies or local bodies, unless you decide to work together with focus and intent to stall the progress and onslaught of a common challenge, nothing meaningful will ever be achieved and you will sooner or later end up revisiting your past form time ti time as you try to fix the loose ends with no end in sight! The lack of this collaborative trust or the lack of its effectiveness is a direct consequence of the first point that we discussed earlier- Arrogance! At one end in this pandemic at a bio-molecular level we have viral mutations and progress wherein the virus seems to know how to make the most through infected host bodies and cells, even as we end up struggling to collaborate and share our resources to deal with and defeat this menace! The more worrisome part is that, the absence or presence of this collaborative trust is going to go a long way in showing future human societies engage and interact with each other and how effective that engagement will be!

Quality Resources are limited: As a geologist, coming across quartz samples was perhaps the most exciting thing for me during my growing up days, but with time and better understanding the whole aspect around quality, gradation and value of a crystal began to become clear and son enough even when many samples were placed around, the trained eye would almost always get locked on the most clear and pristine piece within the lot and this is what the human fascination with quality is perhaps all about- the flipside being- these high quality pieces are few and far in between among the vast ocean of resources that one may come across in a quartz mine! Likewise when you are hit by a challenge at a grand scale- needless to say- your resources, especially the high quality ones’ and the most promising ones will max out more quickly the you can ever realise and unless you have the dynamic ability to grow wings in flight and ramp up the quality circle of the resources and approach across the teams and stations, you will be left with more and more chaos eventually burning out and exhausting all of the limited high quality resources that you may have around you! Ins’t this what the pandemic has actually ended up doing? whether it be human or material resources, the very aspect of having sustained supply of high quality resources has got challenged and compromised like never before and even the best of technological interventions have seemed to pale every now and then as the infection spike keeps moving up and down across the continents!

Collateral Damage is real: As is the case in any warfare, when you are in midst of a pandemic, which is nothing short of a bio-war, collateral damage which goes beyond the immediate loss of lives is almost certain. How well you are able to minimise this depends on the points we discussed above and this collateral damage is in direct proportion to the intelligence or lack of it as people deal with the challenge at hand! What we have witnessed around the world, unfortunately has been a story of excessive collateral damage- broken families, shattered businesses and despair seemingly beyond hope!

Rational mind is the only potent force: A thinking (not overthinking) , rational and alert mind at both an individual and collective societal level is the only master key to deal with a challenge that tends to be larger then what you can deal with.Death by over-analysis and policy paralysis are well known terms and when you are up against a fast moving virus, the last thing you need is getting stuck in your mind games and staying entrapped within. The only meaningful and effective approach to deal with an overbearing situation resides in the ability to decipher whats unfolding and then act swiftly and decisively to minimise and mitigate the risks coming your was as much as you can. Confrontation of a problem coming from a wide scale event is perhaps not a sane way, even though it brings along a charisma of being a heroic effort, true heroism lies in staying low and waiting for the tide to wash over and rising again when the time is more conducive and when the opportunity to strike back is more realistic and the probability of a decisive counter strike are more!

You are responsible for your Life: Irrespective of who says what, how rich or poor you are, how well to do or not you are, nothing of that will ever matter unless you are able to take total ownership and responsibility of your own life! Over the last year, across the world society after society, as it got overwhelmed by the pandemic, the citizens were simply left to fight at their own level with what they had and what they didn’t! This is bound to happen each time and every time a systemic collapse occurs in face of a sever challenge and this is something that can happen more often then you think and hence the whole importance resides in being able to take stock of things around you and always be responsible for your own self- when each one begins to do this, the burden of collective responsibility reduces and immediately bounce back becomes more easy for a society.

I leave you here with these thoughts, given this is a blog, I stop here with these thoughts and you may want to add and curate your won list further, based on how you have experienced and felt the things around you, based on where in the world you are.The fact is, it is a pretty lonely place to get entrapped into- should you ever land up here, well you will have to throw everything that you have got to overcome the challenge and reclaim your rightful life back!

Ciao for now, will be back soon with another one, until then stay safe and stay wise!