Year 2 of The Coronavirus Pandemic

 It was around a year ago that we first heard about this new virus. Never imagined that it could have such a profound impact on lives. Historically, humankind has lived in jungles with predators, ill-equipped to deal with them. The way our ancestors survived was by using their brains to develop tools that they could use to protect themselves and also to hunt for food-non-vegetarian food. Today, with an excess of humans on the planet, nature may want to restore the balance-and man is helping, with chemical or other weapons, biological ones too. These have been used in parts of the world, to carry out mass killing.

Anyway, the point is, this is not the only pandemic we have to worry about. We have a few vaccines, and will invent more, and it will pass-in a year, maybe. At least the life-threatening part will. It may morph into another virus like the common cold virus, which also has no cure. But it has forced us to re-evaluate what is important for Nature and for Humankind, I hope. Why can't governments around the world concentrate their energies on Healthcare for all, at a low cost, even if it's not free? Why are natural disasters man-made, more often than not? Why do we almost always focus on the non-essentials, except in a pandemic or other emergencies/disasters? Are exams really important? This last is a question for the education sector, particularly in India. Learning can happen without necessarily having so many exams. At least, that's my theory, and it can be tested. I once worked in an institute of management where, due to time pressure, we admitted students without an entrance exam, only through a personal interview and they were as good as any other subsequent batch of students. Prior academic performance indication was already available through some other certificates they had. Just an example of how it did work.

I also wonder how the world, with so many resources-particularly human resources-at its disposal, cannot organise itself to focus on the essentials. Among world leaders of this century and the last, I can only recall Gandhiji advocating simple living. What would he have thought of the world in 2021? I wonder...