OH, TO BE LIVING WITHOUT MASKS!

By SHAGORIKA EASWAR

Now that the restrictions on meeting people are lifting and we are heading out to beaches and provincial parks and flocking to stores again (masks, everyone, please!), it seems almost surreal to look back upon the early days of the lockdown.

People talk about what they missed the most with a self-deprecating laugh because not being able to eat out or get a haircut seems so, well, trivial. Now. They tend to gloss over the stress of having routines upended (the ones fortunate enough to retain their jobs), of the fear and the anxiety of having surgery postponed because every resource was focused on fighting COVID-19.

As David Suzuki wrote in a recent column in Desi News, we have a lot to learn still, but COVID-19 can teach us ways to address a crisis with many unknowns, whether it’s a disease pandemic, a rapidly heating planet or accelerating biodiversity loss. 

But are the days of not having family over for dinner if they resided in a different home or not being allowed to visit ailing relatives in long-term care really behind us for good?

My friend Jeeth sent me a link to an article by author Shashi Deshpande in Scroll.in.

We are, all of us, burdened with the idea of our own mortality. What is the greatest wonder in this world, the Yaksha asked Yudhishtira, the wise Pandava king. That we see people dying every day and yet we think we will live forever, he replied. Yes, we push the thought of not-existing away from us. But how do you ignore death when it is all around? When the enemy is so powerful that it has conquered the world?

And so, what have we learned from this? Are we stronger, more resilient, more together as we emerge into the light? Will we be better prepared to cope with future situations or will we slide back to business as usual?

Trust an academic to examine a scenario from multiple aspects. Randy Boyagoda, Vice-Dean, Undergraduate Professor, English Department, Faculty of Arts and Science at University of Toronto, and an acclaimed author, spent a considerable period of time trying to figure out “the most responsible way to model behaviour for myself, my children and others” in the early weeks of the panic related to COVID-19.

“What was life like during peak social distancing? Honestly, all things being equal, I am doing pretty well. I am grateful for the healthy, stable and secure environment we are in compared to the constraints and situations people faced in some parts of the world.”

From what he observed, he says, the response to the pandemic tended to overcorrect – in both directions. People either dismissed the guidelines being proposed by the health authorities or insisted they are not going to get out of their vehicles where they were sitting with two masks on!

We have to work out a viable in-between, he says, because some people are obsessively following the social distancing norms and others, not at all.

“Take our children. They are trying to understand all this information coming at them, all the new rules. And like most adults, they are either very good at following rules or incapable of following them! If you tell kids exactly what to do, most will follow through, but it gets harder when you tell them to use their own judgement! They see people congregating on the beach and want to know why all those people are allowed to do that.”

Boyagoda describes how a recent visit from family friends played out. Everyone was respecting social distancing. The adults were okay, the kids were desperate to run around and play like they used to in the past. So they were allowed to play, so long as they observed the rules. Which they did... until someone forgot.

“Then what do you do? Do you pull up your kids or do you wait for the other parents to do so with their kids? It gets awkward! Also, we live in the East end, in a dense neighbourhood and so there’s always the awareness of being watched – and maybe negatively judged – by neighbours.”

He describes trips to pick up groceries. At Eataly, frequented by the well-heeled, “people were almost hysterical about following every possible rule”. In Little India’s Gerard India Bazaar, Boyagoda found a little shop jam-packed with shoppers.

“They were all wearing masks, all behaving thoughtfully, not being irresponsible at all, but they were not freaking out, either. It was like a normal grocery run for them.”

This was so, he says, because possibly, desis have more experience with instability and public pressure in the countries we come from, be it from difficult situations or from just the sheer numbers of people. We are a little more accustomed to dealing with such situations.

Boyagoda believes some of the behavioural changes are here to stay. People will be much more open to virtual meetings now, for one. These have worked pretty efficiently for many of us, but he worries about those entering the workforce now.

“Those of us who grew up in a blended world can move from an in-person meeting to a phone call to a video conference smoothly, but physical and verbal cues and facial expressions are important and I hope we can find ways to make sure those starting out now, the ones restricted to working remotely, find ways to be literate on those fronts.”

The travel industry will take a long time to recover, he believes, with people reassessing both leisure and business travel. Nonessential travel will drop significantly.

“Of course, that’s if no one sees any big difference in the bottom lines. If business can be conducted without any major impact, people will travel less, but if losing physical connection will impact profit margins, then it might come back.

“What we can safely assume is that the effects of the pandemic will stay with us for months, if not a few years, in some shape or form. We can’t just flip a switch and reset to where we were. We will have to accept middle ground between following all rules and ignoring all rules. We will have to be sensible ourselves while expecting thoughtful action from our governments and authorities. We will have to figure some of the stuff out for ourselves. That is my hope and my prediction.”

Like many people, Boyagoda learned how demanding it is to integrate professional and family life in the same space. He says he knows many people “work from home” but that was when the kids went off to school and one could always head to the neighbourhood coffee shop for a change of scene to get some work done.

“The intensity of everyone together all the time, that can be demanding.”

These past few weeks also confirmed the importance of structure in his days for him.

“I have to go for a run in the morning, or take the dog for a walk, do things in a certain order or the day loses its elasticity. You know how an elastic becomes loose? Time has threatened to feel like that during COVID-19. I also learned just how much I miss normal, daily interactions with people, simple things I took for granted. Now I find when we talk, even casually, everyone speaks for a longer time.”

Ganesh Neelanjanmath is the founder and Chief Technology Officer of Neel-Tech, a mobile application development and technology consulting company.

He created an app, iCent, that serves as a virtual international centre for colleges and universities across Canada – 50 institutions with 300 campuses from coast to coast to coast pre-COVID-19. With team members in offices in Canada, the US, India and New Zealand and plans on working with settlement agencies to expand the platform to cover temporary foreign workers and newcomers, his was an ever-expanding horizon.

Until it shrank to his home.

He used to travel for work. A lot. These past couple of years, he’s spent more time at airports and in hotel rooms in different countries than at home. Conducting business from home has its challenges, he says.

“It’s not just that I miss the travelling and the conferences, because one can close a sale over a meeting on Skype. But it’s not just about closing a sale, it’s about meeting people, it’s about the interaction. There’s nothing like meeting in person and learning from each other. In our virtual meetings, that’s not happening.”

Paradoxically, while the progress they were making in software development has slowed down, it’s busier than ever at the delivery end and thus he faces what can be described as a “good problem”. Demand has increased and business is pouring in.

“We sold our services as a virtual international office where thousands of international students can access info. With the pandemic, this has become all the more relevant. Helping international students acclimatize to Canadian weather, culture and campus life is a challenge for educational institutions and more and more are relying on iCent as a way to connect with students. We’ve onboarded more clients during this period.

“And our team has come up with some great new ideas. We are creating ways to enhance our services in the areas of mental health, student care – in proactive care – keeping info ready, anticipating the questions that are going to be asked.”

They recently prepared a best-practices user guide for their clients on what they can do to serve students better, how to engage future students, promote their services and retain those who have already applied but may be reconsidering in view of the changed situation.

What’s difficult is getting people to work from home. Privacy policies and confidentiality issues, data management, access to staff – for all of which controls are in place in an office environment. Data control policies that were in place for an office IPS don’t work as well in the current bring-your-own-device situation.

“Now we have to give access to employees at home and their infrastructure may not be as sophisticated,” says Neelanjanmath. “If the internet is not working, for instance, someone may not be able to join a discussion. We have to be flexible in our task management. We are a global team – we used to assign a task and go to bed while the team in India worked on it. Now if they have an issue, they have to wait for individuals to wake up to access info on their devices. Clients, however, expect delivery as before, and for the first time, we’ve had to ask for extra time. People understand, because they, too, are dealing with similar situations.”

Also, with most courses being offered online this coming semester, many students are opting to study from their home countries. They have, what Neelanjanmath describes as a whole different set of situations and questions, questions that need to be answered during the day in, say, India, and not during the day in Canada, necessitating double shifts for his employees in other countries.

Based on the conversations he is having, he sees all fall courses being online, perhaps keeping room open for 20 or 30 per cent of the students who are enrolled in courses that need lab or practicals  to be back on campus. 

“The Canadian government is counting online hours towards time needed for immigrant status, and that’s a huge positive, but there is a longing to bring things back to normal.”

And so he sees this as an “interim problem” and his expectation is that by the 2020-21 academic year, things will be better.

Will the changes we are witnessing in terms of social distancing, etc., last?

The simple answer, he says, is yes.

“That caution, a little bit of fear, will remain. Going by our internal discussions, none of us want to go back to an office space any time soon. Things may be a little relaxed now, but we are all self-cautious. When we go out, we wear masks. I don’t really see this fading until next year at the earliest. We will continue to be cautious. The next time we hear anyone sneeze, we will worry...

“Earlier, client delivery was of paramount importance, now it’s taking care of ourselves.”

Personally, too, Neelanjanmath is focusing on mental stability and physical wellness.

“I go for a run every day, just to see other people. We smile at those we pass – from a distance!”

He also sees the downtime as an opportunity to reflect, read and do yoga. And work on new projects.

“I am developing ideas I had put aside. It used to be about generating new business, now it’s about being prepared for future contingencies.”

The fear that we might not be able to be with ageing family members in their final days is one that NRIs are familiar with.

Aruna Narayan Kalle lived through the NRI’s worst nightmare, multiplied several folds. One of very few female instrumentalists – and the only female sarangi player, the internationally-renowned musician travels to Europe and India for concerts, to connect with other musicians and to spend time with family. She made a couple of trips to India in January and February to be with her ailing sister, but was in Canada when her sister passed away. Within a week of her returning from her last visit. And just when the talk of shutting down international flights was amping up.

While we brace ourselves for the late-night call, we never imagine that we won’t be able to go back for the final rites, or for time with family that helps with  closure and healing.

“It was heartbreaking, a nightmare, not being able to go back, we were so close,” she says. “But in a way, perhaps it was a blessing. I can’t bear to think of what it would have been like if she had been in hospital during the strict lockdown that was imposed in Mumbai soon after. When I was leaving for Canada, my brother-in-law gave me a mask which I wore at the airport, but there weren’t that many people wearing them. It was in the early stages, not like now. My father is 92 and I don’t know when I will be able to go back. Usually I go two or three times a year, but this year looks difficult. I call him every morning and evening, and we are trying to make do with that but it’s not the same.”

A grandson’s fifth birthday was celebrated following social distancing norms. Their son placed the cake on a workbench in his garage, both sets of grandparents delivered gifts and watched the child cut his cake from a distance. Another grandchild was born in April. Narayan Kalle waves from the yard, drops off food, and waits for the day when she can actually hold him.

She was supposed to go to San Francisco in May for a joint project with the Kronos String Quartet. Now they practise on Zoom.

“Musicians based in Toronto – they call themselves the Toronto Gharana – used to meet every Friday at 9 pm to play together or talk music. They’ve been doing this for 30 years, but now they also meet on Zoom.”

While she rarely made it to the regular meets in the past, she joins the virtual get-togethers more often now.

“We are all learning new ways of doing things we took so much for granted. In India, too, things are changing. Everyone has an army of househelp, but they’ve all been sent home. Everyone is coping. And they are learning to be self-reliant.”

Narayan Kalle has a house in Pune that she opens up and does a thorough cleaning of on her visits to the city.

“My brother comes with me and both of us do it! He does suggest calling the mali’s wife – we don’t have permanent help there since we don’t live there – but I say we can mange on our own. As I travel a lot and we have dogs, we have always had live-in help in Canada, they are like family, but on a short visit back, I like to do things myself instead of relying on others.

“One of the positives to come out of this scenario is that I like the quiet time this has made available. I like the silence. I like not constantly being under pressure. I don’t have to do this, I don’t have to go out. I am enjoying the time to practise, to read. I’ve learned that you know people for their intrinsic character and personality, and little else. We don’t need the fluff.

“It’s also a big lesson for many of us, I think. We need a lot less of everything. I’ve realized I really didn’t need the things I thought I did. I’m not into shopping for the fun of it, but still, I’ve gone out and bought peripheral things, mindlessly. I decided I’m not going to do that. I don’t need a huge wardrobe. It’s not that I’ve become a different person, I was always like this, but this has given me time to reflect on what is important. It’s given me clarity. I think this time is Nature’s way of doing a reset.

“I hope Canada and the US will become more inward looking, bring core manufacturing back to their countries. At least of the strategic and important things like masks and ventilators. We had become oblivious to the long-term cost of outsourcing manufacturing, of becoming so dependant on other countries. The pandemic has made us realize that we are held hostage to these countries. I hope it will serve as a wake-up call.”

She doesn’t see the changes as long-lasting, though. People will be back to business as usual after a period of time.

“We are already seeing it with the relaxing of rules, people who think it’s all behind us, that it’s all good, who will not respect rules. But these cycles of viruses waning and waxing will continue. The older generation will be the most affected, but even those who believe they are invincible will be impacted in ways they are not thinking about now. I feel terrible for all those who have lost jobs and for young people who have no idea what the future holds for them. Which companies will stay afloat, where will the jobs be?”

The talk turns, naturally, to the horror stories we saw around the levels of neglect at long-term care facilities. She used to say she didn’t want to depend on their children and would move to one when the time came. Now she’s scared.

“The whole concept has to undergo change, and that won’t happen overnight. We can’t just throw money at it and hope it will improve things, we have to look at how we value and treat older people. Human relationships are at the core of the issue.”

Speaking about her music, Narayan Kalle says she wants to play what brings her joy and a sense of accomplishment.

“I see all these articles on social media, the flurry of performances online and I think, why all the drama! I sense a desperation to be visible. I would rather play something of value. My music is a very private endeavour. I play professionally, but not to exhibit. If I can spend three hours in my music room – what more do I need? That’s my sadhana. My accomplishment for the day. It doesn’t matter if nobody is there to listen to it. I don’t need the outside validation. 

“So I would say, by and large, I am in a good space – as good as can be under the circumstances. I want to feel optimistic. I have realized that we are alone in this world and I look inward for peace.”

Parth Patel is the CEO of SyS Creations – IT Management and Consulting Solutions which focuses on technology-driven solutions.

He founded YoloCarts, which aspires to make hiring a pre-vetted service provider as easy as e-commerce and also serves as COO in Writi Inc. which creates advanced and intuitive technology solutions that enable healthcare providers to focus on more important things: their business and productivity.

It was in this capacity that he was able to be involved in a sector that was probably the worst affected by COVID-19 – long-term care.

“Nurses often work multiple shifts in different centres and doctors, too, visit different centres,” he says. “When we heard that healthcare professionals who work at one facility would no longer be able to work in another, I wondered who would then care for the residents. How could we better support both the residents and the staff?”

His team came up with a virtual healthcare solution through which physicians can stay in touch with patients and staff without actually being physically present. That was, of course, also possible via Skype or Zoom, but unlike those platforms which are not integrated, on the app his team created, prescriptions physicians write automatically flow to the pharmacy, or an order of an X-ray to the lab.

“Our team worked day and night and we had it up and ready in nine straight days,” says Patel. “We were able to help many of the homes that were affected. One home had 59 cases of COVID-19. With our input, they were able to care for them better, while following social distancing norms.”

His company works with NGOs in India to connect them with people who want to donate food.

“We created a simple app thro-ugh which they were able to collect enough supplies to feed 50,000 people,” says Patel.

They also received many enquiries from companies to develop apps for telehealth and virtual care. Tech adaptation has increased five times, he says.

“Earlier, if someone suggested you see your family doctor on FaceTime would you have even considered it? Now, chances are, you don’t want to walk into a clinic and are relieved to see your physician virtually. This is the new normal and it’s not going away. The behavioural changes will stay.”

According to his crystal ball, we’re not going back to the lives we had any time soon.

“No way. Take air travel for one. If I can possibly take a virtual meeting over longer wait times at airports to check in and collect baggage, etc., resulting from social distancing, why would I bother flying? This is going to be a major, major change in the way we do business that I think will stay.

“In one office that we support with IT solutions, they are putting up dividers, reducing capacity by 50 to 70 per cent. Another company has developed thermal imaging that they are using to scan everyone who enters. Anyone with an above-normal temperature sets off an alert that locks the door. Places like movie theatres and sports arenas might consider similar measures when larger gatherings are permitted again. The government might have to mandate those.”

In terms of being prepared for the second wave or the next virus, Patel doesn’t think we will ever be ready in spite of learning some ways to do things differently simply because we don’t know what is coming.

“Right now we are careful, but we’ve seen how no one reacts until something actually happens. The federal and provincial governments have done a fabulous job of stepping up to look after small businesses, but in reality, we’re not ready for the next big one. We can be prepared to some extent, but it would be dangerous to assume we’ve seen everything and we are 100 per cent ready. Also, there were funding cuts in the long-term care sector. This situation is an opportunity for governments to reassess their role.”

 Patel describes himself as a people’s person and the current the situation as “crazy”. “There’s no real interaction happening. There are pros and cons to every situation – this cuts travel time, but one loses touch. Our entire team is working from home and we’ll continue to do so for the entire year. Fifty per cent of our staff always worked from home, now it’s 100 per cent. And it’s not easy on those who are not used to it. People are frustrated, it affects mental health, it affects their family life...”

To address some of these concerns, he’s instituted a group call at the end of each working day.

“We gather everyone and talk about how the day went. It’s not so much about work as about staying connected with each other.”

He has also taken out the timing barrier. Team members are given specific tasks with the expected completion date. How and when they do it is up to them, making it easier for those who might be juggling parenting duties while working from home with the schools and daycares also closed.

Patel used the down time to reconnect with friends he’d lost touch with over the years.

“It felt so good. I’ve realized that staying connected is so important, supporting each other in any way we can is so important. We also need to spend time on our health. I used to work out every day, but as I got busier, that fell by the wayside. In fact, I was so busy, I didn’t have the time to realize I’d stopped exercising! Now I make sure to go for a brisk walk every day, and walk for at least 30 to 45 minutes.”

But the man who develops apps to improve delivery of health services turns off the apps on his phone when he heads out for a walk.

“It motivates some to walk longer, work out more, but with me, it has the reverse effect. I’m more likely to think I walked so many extra steps yesterday, I can take it easy today! I’m not alone in this. I’ve seen people at the gym say they need to burn fewer calories today because they worked out extra hard the day before! So I just turn everything off and enjoy recharging my batteries through nature.”

Kalyan Chakravarthy was grateful he had to go in to work at least three days a week, sometimes four, during the COVID-19 lockdown.

“I’m part of the everyday management team for the region so I had to go in – that helped me retain my sanity,” says the Chief Information Officer (CIO) at the Regional Municipality of Durham. “We regularly reviewed what we needed to do to keep everything running smoothly, applying technology to support frontline workers.”

Social services, transit, the delivery of certain health services such as social services, childcare, paramedics, dentistry and immunization, road works, fire safety, collection of water billing and property taxes, fire and EMS services, recreational programs... all of these come under his purview.

The planning went in three phases. Phase one was about keeping things going.

“Yes, there’s a pandemic but certain services have to continue to be provided uninterrupted to residents in the region,” says Chakravarthy. “How can we make our employees mobile, provide access while ensuring safety so they are not worried about their own lives while helping others?”

They identified critical services and then prioritized them into high, medium and low categories.

“We could close courts for a period, but people expect running water! We had to keep the supply going. We opened childcare for emergency workers. We have four long-term care centres in the region and we worked on how to support workers and residents there, using technology to make things safer.”

He candidly describes the first phase as almost a knee-jerk response. “We had to do it quick, do it now.”

By May, when it became evident that the virus wasn’t as short-lived as had been hoped, they swung into phase two, of how to sustain their services, how to make them fail-proof. At the time of this interview, they were working on the restoration of services.

“We have a recovery framework for small and medium businesses. But the focus has to be on health and business. And we need to get the info out fast and reliably. How many cases? What are the best steps one can take in the given situation?”

Chakravarthy sees the way services are delivered changing.

“The way people interact is changing. Earlier, people would walk into a bank or the service provider’s office to pay bills, they’d stop and chat for a while. We won’t see too much of that now.

“But I don’t think there’s a straight answer to the will it go this way or that question. There will be a percentage of people who will be cautious for the foreseeable future; others, until they get the vaccine. But the thought will always be at the back of our minds. I have to wash my hands. I have to wear a mask. Will everyone work remotely forever? Maybe not. See, earlier, it used to be a benefit, a luxury, being able to work from home for a day or two a week. Now we recognize that doing so interminably comes with a set of issues. Being on your cell phone or video calls all day is mentally exhausting – you have to be alert or you’ll miss the details. It’s been found that eights hours of remote work equals 11 hours of regular work, based on the amount of effort one has to put in. People may be saving the commute time but they are getting tired all the same.

“We’re all at the stage where we want – need – the social interaction. You see people lining up at restaurant patios that are opening up? They’re are not there for the drinks so much as to see people. It varies, of course, based on an individual’s personality. Working remotely works for some, but my take is that a majority will want to come back to their  regular office environment. Businesses are reconfiguring, but I see that as a temporary measure. Those barriers between desks will come down. The current actions are driven by fear. I might avoid public transit now, but once the vaccine is available, this will be just another flu season. That said, I should emphasize that I am talking about an effective vaccine, and that might take longer than we want.

“An optimist like me expects to have it by the end of the year, all will be good and then I can plan my vacation... A pessimist might say by the end of next year. A realist would say, we’ll have the vaccine by early next year. But we know it’s not just about getting the vaccine but about making it available to everyone. Which will involve prioritization again, where distribution is concerned. New Zealand led the way in curbing the number of cases and we can learn from their example.

He learned the value of relationships during this period, he says.

“We use the word ‘friend’ loosely, everyone we meet, every acquaintance is a friend. I found out how much a true friend really matters. We used to say we didn’t connect as often as we’d have liked to because we didn’t have the time. Well, now we had the time, who reached out? It’s been challenging, not being able to meet people in person. I’m a people’s person and if I was confined to the home, I’d find it difficult. But, can’t complain. We’re healthy, we’re fine. I can say I’m great! And I believe in miracles! I’m a strategist, I used to think long-term. Now I’ve learned to think short-term, to enjoy what I have now. I am so blessed to have the kind of people I have in my life. I could pick up the phone and there were people ready to talk to me. We were scheduling Zoom talks with family and friends! Relationships are our strength, that’s one important takeaway for me from this.”

Chakravarthy also would like to send a shout-out to the people picking up our garbage, making sure traffic lights work, doing roadwork, and more.

“They are also risking their lives, gong out to work every day to make sure everything works like clockwork. People in all tiers of government, the public sector workers, they’ve all done an amazing job. You sometimes hear the comment, ‘Oh, you work for the government? So you don’t really work!’ Some say it lightly, some mean it, but everything that has worked well and smoothly during this crisis is because they are doing what they are. For most of us, ‘frontline workers’ means nurses, doctors and people working in grocery stores. They are doing a phenomenal job, but we musn’t forget all the others doing everything to make sure life as we knew it doesn’t change drastically in the small, simple services, often unnoticed – until they stop working! – we take as a given.”