The New Norm Since 2020

By Pragati Saraf

Hello! The girl in the picture is me, Pragati and the cute ball of fur on the carpet is my dog, Tito. As you can see, right now I am amid a video call with four of my friends - Akash, Yasha, Rahul and Manjari. Manjari is just a true cat lover and every call, she shows us either some cute cat video or the tricks that her cat is learning. And today is no different. I wouldn’t believe before the pre COVID-19 era that our gang would be having conversations over video calls rather than over a glass of cold coffee and steaming hot bowl of Maggi. Oh! How much I miss those days. But as people started calling it – The New Norm for Survival, we all adapted to it. Thank the Lord for my friends who keep yapping at each other on the same topic till date. It keeps me truly entertained. Conversations like these keep happening.

The Conversation: -

Akash: “I am just tired of playing virtual basketball. I need to play it with real people now”.

Yasha: “Sure! Please do! It will be good riddance from all your poor jokes and hogging.”

Akash: “Knew it! You just love sitting in front of your computer all day long and doing your work. No wonder you have become lazy.”

Yasha: “At least lazy is better than torturing other people with random facts like the scientific term for brain freeze “sphenopalatine ganglioneuralgia”. And I am not lazy. I am just too comfortable”.

Rahul: “Stop being at each other’s throats now!”.

Manjari: “Akash! You should have gotten used to it by now as it’s been ten years, we have been living our lives like this. You know this is the only way of survival”.

ME: “The pandemic that hit us in Year 2020 has become a part of our lives now. We live in a virtual world now. This is the New Norm. If we just look outside through the microscopic glass windows of our apartments, we can see the virus floating around in the air”.

Telling that, I started looking outside the microscopic window, recalling the memories of the past decade and drawing a comparison with the current times. We all were just talking about Year 2020. The year was historic. It changed the life on earth and its earthlings. Who knew that Corona Virus or COVID – 19 could be this fatal? That being caged in our pods – in isolation would be the new and only way of survival? Who would have thought that our lives will be dependent on division and not unity? So much has changed since 2020. Lives have become virtual. A sense of fear and isolation have been instilled in us. With this our freedom of moving around also has been taken away from us. Now we can’t even leave our houses except emergencies suited up in our armors - anti-virus suit kits and our anti-virus vehicles.

But living like this isn’t so bad. The sky is clear. The stars shine brighter. The leaves are greener, different species of birds have returned home and the seasons are less harsh. The environment is finally free from the cruelty of humans. And as for us, we finally got the time to find our talents and pursue it. Everything we want is right here, just at the tips of our fingers. College courses, jobs, learning are now virtual. I learned the art of creating 3D paintings online and made good use of all the hoarded toilet paper rolls. The mountain painting behind my computer on the wall is my favourite. And the stacks of toilet paper roll you see all around the room is for my new upcoming project.

People eventually started realizing and finally accepting, that this virus is part of our lives now. They started planning and trying out new inventions for people to lead a comfortable live even after being caged in their homes. For instance: In Year 2025, Mr. Alberto Thomson, a world-renowned scientist, invented a fully functional robot who would not be infected by this virus. It was provided to every household by the Government to carry out the household chores, delivery of supplies, security, etc. I named my robot Princess Consuela aka Consy.

I was just thinking about all of this when I was called out of my thoughts by my friends who were still on the video call. It was time to water my two plants, the only source of natural oxygen in my apartment, therefore I bid goodbye to my friends and logged off.

By Pragati Saraf