#Trends in #COVID2019 #Pandemic and #AchievingSustainableDevelopmentGoals
Dr. Ashish Manohar Urkude
LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashishmanoharforvalues/
Unsung Heroes:
Mr. Arun P. 45, is unknown name to society, but the day, when the first #COVID2019 lock down was enforced, this
entrepreneur, who is just 8th grader, developed the sanitization mechanism in his welding shop and put it in front of
his locality. He, made a video in his local language to train a team of 8 to spread awareness, and in the span of just 3
days, the locality was aware about the precautions to be taken during this Pandemic.
Unknown Heroes:
Mr. Jaggi, just 65 years age, and his team cooked food in Gurudwara for Langhar, these youngies lifted the food, put
it in their vehicles, distributed in locality where daily wage labourers from other states/ provinces were living in
jhuggi and they did it for consecutive 45 days and distributed 2000+ plates, twice a day.
Out of Limelight Heroes are also Real Contributors to Society:
There are many Gurudwaras where my friends are cooking Langhar food, right from morning 4 am so that the food
reaches at right place and time. There are many such workers in various governmental or non-governmental
organisations, who work tirelessly, out of limelight, right from soldiers, police, doctors, teachers, sanitization
workers, animal welfare… to working in various domains, and they are the Real Contributors to the Real Society, this
is the first time their contribution was brought into limelight and people recognised by clapping or honouring like
leaders of the nations.
Kids:
Kids, like Ms. Ayushi, Ms. Arya, Ms. Aditi, and others, everyday discuss what they played till 4 pm on video call, as they
cannot meet and remind each other, “Please don’t go out, touch anything outside, wash hands, …” every day.
During COVID2019, their games have changed. In place of playing outside they play indoor games, and you name it
they play it. May it be Cards, Skating, Quiz, Business, House-House, WFH, Air-hostess, Doctor-Doctor, Teacher-Student, Astronauts-Cosmonauts, Alien-Alien, Farmer-Farmer, Grocery Shop, Vegetable Vendor, Pav-Bhaji vendor;
even their schools have sent an App from where they carry on their further studies and solve quizzes, submit their
home work to their teachers on WhatsApp, they cook really tasty food and offer it to parents, grandparents, uncle,
aunties, in their joint families and they are also sharing their DIY (Do It Yourself) activities and crafts. They made everyone feel, “The whole world is one family! (“Vasudhaiv Kutumbakam”-Sanskrit)”
Office Goers:
WFH i.e. Working From Home became official even in Governmental and Non-Governmental departments, except
where the actual Physical Work was needed. Though all were in formals or even suited booted but once in a meeting
a colleague was wearing a blazer, shirt and tie above but was wearing Bermuda, which was visible when his kid tilted
the camera on his Lap Top. It was Universal Phenomenon and then followed #WFHJokes.
Flood of Webinars and Certificates:
Almost everyday being Computer Expert I was guiding colleagues and friends of social media about which is the best
platform for Webinar, may it be Microsoft Team, Google Meet, Zoom, Facebook Live, YouTube Live, Instagram Live,
LinkedIn Live, etc. or combination of any of these, to make it reach maximum. There are even trends to Register by
Google Form and get Certification after Webinar.
Flood of COVID2019 Surveys:
There was a trend of Google Forms Surveys to collect data especially on changing habits, impact on daily routine and
behaviour or on business or on education or Air Travel or… Till 10th June 2020, I had responded to 202 forms, and
encouraged researchers to correct few questions those were getting repeated to make each survey look different.
Right from Ph.D. students to Experts everyone was collecting data.
Finally, some have put interesting trends that influenced even the governments of different countries, to take proper
decisions.
Quizzes and Instant Certificates:
Few of the friends started awareness drive on managing personal finance, block-chain, etc. during and after
COVID2019 and conducted several Quiz worth 100 marks with 10 to 20 questions. It helped students to upgrade and
it kept seniors busy.
Education, Knowledge Sharing @ Home: Trend and Reverse Trend:
While sharing knowledge all enjoyed the trend right from kids to octogenarians. Grand Parents in fact learnt how to
use Education App from just a 5 to 7-years-old kids. It’s a kind of Reverse Trend, in place of Grand Parents Teaching
kids, Kids taught Grand Parents.
However, inside knowledge, from the book chapter of the Maths or Environmental Science or Social Science or
Languages was taught by Grand Parent to kids too, which a is normal trend since aeons.
Flood of Free Courses and Licenses from Top Institutions of the World:
Right from IIM, IIT, WHO, Google, LinkedIn, PMI, NASBA, MBRU, Wharton, Microsoft, IBM, Oxford, Dell, to HBS to MIT and other Top Global Institutions/ Organizations started Free Courses, and even some licenses were available free of cost, of course, every candidate had/has to take course and pass the examinations with more than 80% marks was the criteria. I myself got 10 Licenses/ Certifications right
from Consultation to Project Management to Block Chain Expert to AI and AR Expert to Digital Marketing Expert, and
you might also may have got a couple of dozen certificates, of course.
Once, it was announced, immediately, I forwarded it as a WhatsApp message and few of my past colleagues got
Registered for free courses by Top Institutions, they worked smartly Registered for 5 different courses at a time, and
devoted 6 to 8 hours a day for this activity, and they encouraged others to do so by putting their Certificates and
guided others on Social Media, this way the chain reaction encouraged the students, children and House wives.
After certifications, even, some people got together, started a ‘start up’ too.
House Wives:
Hats off to House-Wives as they were the Busiest Chief Chefs at Each Home, thus, Each Home became Infinite Star
Hotel.
House Wives were the Real Durga of 8 hands working day and night, multitasking, at multiple levels.
Trend of Overwhelming Kindness and Humanity:
During Complete locked down, the front-line soldiers like Doctors, Paramedics, Pharmacists, Police, Government
employees in essential services like Bank, Electricity Board, Water Supply, News channels, etc. are fighting war like
soldiers fighting war on the front. They had to protect themselves at the same time be humanitarian, as well as strict
with people on roads, and behave like ‘Mother taking care of her kids’.
Look at the viral news and videos, right from Spain to India to USA, they had only one common theme
‘Overwhelming kindness and humanity’, proving ‘Together only we can Survive’.
Ramayana, Mahabharat, Mahadev and Popular Serials on T.V.:
Kids started using Ramayana language and understood the Indian Values system due to popular serials like
Ramayana and Mahadev, otherwise, Pokémon, Doremon, Ninja Hattori, Tom and Jerry, Paw Petrol, Chhota Bheem,
were what they watched regularly. It helped most of the kids to up date their knowledge about Indian values, ethics,
mythology and history.
After watching Mahabharata, they watched other videos and read books, related to History, like World War 1 and 2,
and understood, that ‘Wars are fought on weaknesses and not on strengths and if next world war is there, none will
survive’.
Farmers, Logistics, and SCM and Field Jobs:
Farming is a basic job in India. Many helped each other by taking precautions to let the vegetables and food grains
reach at proper place.
Community and Family Bonding:
It was already there in joint families, but globally the Family and community bonding grew as they had no choice but
to survive together or perish together. I know few people who were enemy of each other but had to stay put
together for 2 months and they survived and got converted into good friends.
Remembering a talk with H.E. Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam:
When I said, “Sir, in case every country become self dependent, self reliant in every domain and if there are 200 countries on earth and if they develop Space Craft flying with different technologies then within 25 years at least one country might break the Light Barrier and thus humans can break the speed of Light Barrier and can travel Faster then the speed of light (FTL) in next 25 years.
He liked the idea as we were discussing humans should expand the their civilization beyond earth. He immediately send “Best of Luck” for my Ph.D. at night 10 pm. #COVID2019 has proved we need to expand to survive such devastating catastrophe in future, for perpetual existence of human civilization.
#AchievingSDG and Perpetual Human Existence on #MotherEarth:
Humans have fallen to their greed by exploiting #MotherEarth beyond their needs. So can humans go beyond this #Pandemic to #AchievingSustainableDevelopmentGoals/ #AchievingGlobalGoals / #AchievingSDG / #AchievingSustainableGoals?
The Answer is, “Big YES!”
Look at the photos/ videos shared on #SocialMedia, the #COVID2019 Pandemic Stopped Big Human Industrial
Activities, that made the Environment clean, green and sheen and made us realise, “If we take care of #MotherEarth
and #MotherNature, they will take care of us,” and hence we should plan our future accordingly.
As COVID2019 brought us together, let’s try to Achieve Sustainable Development Goals; all 17 SDGs and all 169
targets.
Just Imagine, we have achieved SDG…
Now, just take an example of developing a vaccine.
If there is a pandemic, within a span of a month, we’ll be able know the cause, and develop the vaccine too.
This, can save humanity, run global economy, and save other resources, that too #FOREVER and thus #HumanCivilisation can Survive #Forever too, i.e. We’ll have #PerpetualExistence on #MotherEarth and #Beyond our #SolarSystem and other #Galaxies too.
Copyright- Dr. Ashish Manohar Urkude.