Fight Against Corona - WFH - First week impression

Everything was perfect. No traffic, no honking. Uber was taking me home, sweet home. In the ear it was 'Weightless' by 'Marconi Union' - slowing my heartbeats, calming my soul. I was escaping from all the pressure this new project applied on me. I felt like a wooden boat floating on a peaceful river.

"Mitron..."

All of a sudden the floating boat shook heavily. I became that human with thousand worries again. My nap was cut short. It was 8 PM, 19th Mar 2020. Our prime minister was addressing the nation. My driver didn't want me to sleep during such a big announcement. He rose the volume of FM receiver.

Now I was back to my senses. The outbreak started in a city - Wuhan in China turned out to be a pandemic and India - our nation was preparing to fight against it. Prime minister wanted us to be together in defeating SARS - Novel Corona Virus aka COVID 19.

We saw this in Europe and China. Cases and death count was exponentially increasing day by day. It reminded me of the scheme explained to me by my friends who were doing chain marketing business.

You add two people, those two add another two each and so on. Participants in the scheme would grow like a parabola which has no downward trend unless people part of the scheme stop adding others.

PM wanted us not to join the scheme. He wanted us to break the chain. He wanted us to stay home on coming Sunday, observe Janata Curfew. For the people, by the people. My employer was prepared to join the fight. Employees were told to stay home. Only reach office if it's too critical. Banking being essential service, we would need to serve the nation, serve people with financial services.

The plan was ready.

Backbone of the bank, technology team - the unsung heroes - was prepared with VPN to enable its employees to work from home at scale. BCM and technology team were working relentlessly with higher management to ensure minimum disruption in running the bank.

We were told to work from home. We were worried on the safety of the people who would have to visit office. But there was courage and faith in everyone's mind that we together would fight against Corona. It was a bit late but it was not too late to start isolation and flatten the parabola.

After reaching home I had converted top of cupboard in the hall to my office desk. Cleaned it up. Set google mini to interact when I'm bored 😉. Arranged chess board to play with the other me when I needed break.
Placed the laptop and Notebook for the so called work.

First day was awesome. Woke up just 30 minutes before the first standup. Had breakfast and lunch on time. Performed tasks more efficiently. Spent time with family. Lockdown felt like blessing in disguise. Work time increased unknowingly. Still I could manage to sleep more which gave me energy.

On the day of Janata Curfew, I practiced Yoga in the morning. Spent the rest of the day as usual with rest mode on. A Sunday could never be more peaceful than this.

Like everyone I was waiting to clap from balcony in the evening. At 5 Everyone from their balcony joined PM to appreciate the health workers who helped us fight against this decease.

Some people from different parts of the country took one step ahead and arranged rally to express their gratitude. Fools didn't seem to listen to PM carefully. He urged to clap from inside home, he also asked to stop after 5 minutes. God bless them!

First week was good in many ways. Personally I've got more time with family. I've got time to look within after a log time. Started Yoga and exercise which I couldn't carry on due to infamous lengthy travel time in Mumbai.

Though people were at distance, technology brought them closer. Meetings happened virtually. Ideas transferred electronically. Love in the air was replaced by Virus and electronic messages.

Number of Corona cases across the globe increased day by day. Leaders of certain countries acted like irresponsible idiots; pushed their country to danger by not taking decision on time. God bless them too!

Flip side of the lockdown is that nature is getting greener. Ozone layer is healing. Fuel consumption is low. CO2 emission is low. Hope all these whatsapp forwards are true! 

Though people keeping social distance are fighting against Corona, there are a lot of people who don't have roof to sleep, don't have food to feed their children. Hunger is their primary enemy, shelter is their first weapon.

Hope government will take necessary action to add them part of the break the chain war.