A Winding up note for the 21 day #Covid19 Lock down series

A Winding up note for the 21 day #Covid19 Lock down series

Some friends asked that I do a winding up note for the 21-day Covid19 Lock down series of blogs...so here it is...

It all started with the Indian PM appearing on TV at 8 pm on 24th March 2020 and declaring a 21 day lock down to secure India from a Covid19 disaster. The virus, whose global presence we knew from the media, since December 2019, had already wrecked havoc on lives in most continents and India was on the brim of a possible breakout! I couldn't sleep that night. One could see what this portends. One could understand that a crisis like this was neither a beginning, nor an end. It was going to be a big, stark, loud picture of what the future holds for humanity and life on Earth. My work as an environmentalist and an engineer driven by some worry about nature, people and logic, made me commit, as if by some force of thought, that I will write one blog piece a day for 21 days. At that time, I never realised that it would fatigue me out!

There were two more reasons why I decided to write the series. One, was to force myself out of an inertia, to do something I always wanted to, and enjoyed doing. The inertia was real, as there was so many things distracting me, wasting me, and that included my indulgence with the social media as well. I am on facebook, twitter, instagram, whatsapp, telegram, gmail - 3 accounts and so on. Agreed, I was "normal." But I had to get out of it. It did not mean I drop and recluse; it meant I disrupt this normal. 

The other reason was more of the intellect. I was getting this very painful, overflowing feeling with various bits and pieces of analysis of the crisis that Earth, Life and humanity and it's activities were going through. The inaction of all of us to help tackle the crisis of the Earth and life, from the individual to the most powerful people on earth was getting on the nerves of a number of us. This virus pandemic opened a flood of thinking of the future. The worst to me is still the one that has not come - whether it be a climate impact or a more sinister virus attack. 

A number of us have been talking to each other on this, for decades, even as we continued to do whatever possible to build the change. But we kept talking to each other. This set of writings, is hence an outcome of a collective thinking, years of work and writings of many wonderful people, a few of which I have known and read, and some I have learnt through others. The words are mine, the knowledge is evolutionary.  Infact, through the 21 days, I have had hours over the phone with thinkers and doers like Prof P Vijayakumar ( also my teacher and mentor), Devinder Sharma, an expert on food and agriculture economy, S Usha, a close colleague and environmentalist, Rajesh krishnan, an organic farmer and activist, to name the most frequent of them. Then there were these friend-in-arms, classmates, batch mates, young friends, new-found friends, and they were many who contributed, some without even knowing they were doing so. I am indebted to all of them. Two resilient people at home - my wife and son - left me alone, and fed me contently. I didn't miss anything on that front. 

Then the big challenge was - who is going to read my blog? I shared it in facebook. But I also, shamelessly, posted it in almost every group I was in, and to everybody who were in my immediate whatsapp contacts. I asked them to share it, if they like it. This ran to a few hundreds. I literally became a virus, attempting to contaminate everybody in contact with me! The more immune may not even have opened the link. The less immune, many who knew me well, opened, read and some of them, sent me some good words.  Many of them also did a virus; they spread it to others as well. The encouragement I got was also infectious. 

I am glad it's been relatively well appreciated. For those who haven't read this, I now request that you read from Day #1 to Day#21 and don't forget to let me know what you think about it. And yes, do share it. 

Thoughts are like a ship with the sails up. You still need the winds to take it forward...