So now that most people have had their say on the lockdown, the new normal and everything linked to this, its my turn.
The most amazing thing I have learnt is the resilience of children. They have had to make massive adjustment to their life, without any understanding of the problem. The way they took the change, shows yet again how we underestimate the ability of children to adapt and find their happiness in what is around. It is a great lesson for us millennial parents who try to protect our children and give them perfect lives. I have learnt that children find their happiness and learn to live with what they have and as parents, we should focus more on making our children ready for the vagaries of life than giving them a cocooned existence.
The other amazing thing is the resilience of the poor and self employed. They have borne the biggest brunt of the lockdown. Many daily wage earners have lost livelihood. The government, which did a great job to try and prevent the spread in first 2 months, was very insensitive to the concerns of this group. But many have found ways and means to survive, pick up jobs which came up, find ways to reach back home and try to put their life back. I don't mean to undermine their sufferings but applaud their spirit.
The third thing that the lockdown showed was the power of free markets. The way the lease rentals corrected (and continue to correct), the way the prices of hygiene products and their constituent materials shot up, the way supply ramped up, the way labour markets rose and then came back, its quite a good education to all of us on how free markets behave when demand/supply is suddenly disrupted. It would be interesting if someone put up the data on this. An interesting side note to this is how demand has got shaped to the available supply and modified lifestyles. I see lot of people buying cycles (latent demand), postponing high-end cellphones (supply shortage) and so on.
Lastly, I think this lockdown has certainly helped people realise what really matters. Many have got back closer to their families and their roots. Some have relocated (even permanently). While the job market does not allow it today, and remote working has set new benchmarks, I foresee attrition with people willing to settle for lesser closer home than slog it out in cities for some more money.
This is my tuppence on the Lockdown. Stay safe everyone.
