July 12, 2021: I took a wrong turn today

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July 12, 2021: I took a wrong turn today. As in any large city there is a complex set of roads and flyovers that crisscross the city, and one needs to know which one to take to get to specific places. It is like going to Malibu from Culver City an knowing the exact exit to take to get to downtown when coming off the Salem Parkway. I took a wrong turn today and ended up in my old haunts when I was a kid growing up in the Dum Dum Park and Bangur neighborhoods. Old spaces, old bondhus, old mischiefs. The mischiefs make up our lives and memories. Things we did then, things we do now. Hiding from others, surreptitious activities, getting discovered and then the laughs over our innocence. This is what makes memories that can be shared in the future. My bondhu came over in the afternoon and we went for what could only be called a “joy ride” just driving around and talking of the futures that are before us. Futures are being made now as we gear up for vaccinations. The Wake Angels, the NGO I am working with, Devdas, the O2Cs that now remain in waiting till the next wave. A bondhu from Virginia sent a message asking me to be careful – Delta has now been superseded by Kappa. When will we run out of Greek letters and have to name future strains by committee as we do with the hurricanes? The Atlantic is warm this year, thus as we move towards hurricane season we may need more names. It is in these names that we normalize the aberrations. The threats – the way we confront the unknown. If we can name it, that is sufficient. I was talking to a bondhu about the way we have taught online through the pandemic. This person is also a teacher and we realized that the label “online” is indeed the issue. Names and adjectives. They seem to multiply with time, “flipped” “hybrid” “synchronous” and it continues. If, after the pandemic, we could simply call it teaching and trust the teacher and the students to find the best ways to teach and learn then we have learned something. Then we have created something new. Else we return to the comfort of habit abandoning the anxieties of innovations. A bondhu I am working with amazes me with the innovations of a small business the person is running. Respect that. Innovate. Learn. Do. In everything. From relationships to food. Tomorrow I have some (small number so we can sit a little distant from each other) folks stopping by. In the old days there would be a little preparation. Get some snacks to go with the tea. Today, post-pandemic it is a Swiggy away. Will we abandon Swiggy when the Greek letters are only a small part of our lives? I think not. Why then, in some industries, we want to turn the clock back when the clock is definitely ahead of us. Perhaps there will be some innovators, who will eventually be punished for transgressions from the convention. But those innovators will set the stage for the next step. In everything. These will be other martyrs of COVID-19 who dreamed of a better future and resisted the return to “normal.” We resisted and thus we must pay the price. There is always a price and there is always a reward. “A new kind of tension.” Not just in Green Day’s America, but Worldwide.

Comments

Unknown said…
Interesting heading, interesting read
July 12, 2021 at 7:42 PM
Ananda Mitra said…
Many thanks for reading, and your comment
July 13, 2021 at 5:30 PM
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