With the gradual opening up of Delhi, a friend whom we hadn’t seen for over two months came to visit us. Thanks to the pandemic, this otherwise joyous occasion, evoked a mixture of guilt and apprehension, not unlike that for a diabetic eating gulab jamuns at night. During the course of the evening, we discussed how the pandemic has changed our lives.
A very clear impact has been on our shopping habits. Even the most tech-wary amongst us have shifted at least partly to ordering things online. I fall in the category that believes in buying things from a store. One should be able to see what one is buying! But slowly my children have encouraged me to find things online. I have been using online companies for many years to buy small things but I had forgotten how to return them if they weren’t right. When something had to be returned, I would find someone or the other to do it for me.
During the lockdown, there was little option but to shop online, as most shops were closed. A few days ago, I ordered some garments for my mother as she had suddenly lost a lot of weight. The first lot that came was not up to the mark. It was also too small and had to be returned. As the children were busy, I started thinking about who I could give them to. At this point, my cook asked me why I was trying to find someone to take them off me instead of returning them? I told him that the children were busy and I had no idea how to return the items. He promptly came across to me and showed me how simple it was! Since then, I have become a regular user of online ordering.
A few months back, we had hired a lady attendant to care for my mother who needed close personal attention at that time. The attendant had recently come from her village in north India. She was smart but did not have too much education. Notwithstanding her paucity of schooling, she was wedded to her smartphone and could easily find what she wanted to buy on online platforms. I also notice that every other staff member, not just at my home, but in other homes in my neighbourhood as well, are devoted to their phones!
While this is anecdotal and by no means a serious study, it seems to be an indication of how things are changing in the world around us. Smartphones, and not just ordinary phones, are a necessity of life today. Do we remember the old phones that we were using just a couple of decades ago? So many other things have become relics of a past that was the reality just yesterday. Thanks to the super fast progress of technology, changes are happening at a much faster pace. In the fast pace of change, we never really notice that the world around us has changed so drastically!
These days, the global pandemic has added to the fast pace of change brought about by technology. Online shopping was already a big segment of the market before the pandemic. Many departmental stores had become distressed or gone out of business due to the bleeding competition of online shopping even before the pandemic. But as markets have been closed and people locked up in their homes, online shopping has at times become really the only option. How many businesses, big and small, have folded up during this time? Sometimes, the thought of the stress faced by ‘Mom and Pop’ shops across the country fills me with despair.
Perhaps, the story that I narrated earlier, also contains the hint of a solution. We can no longer be content with the way things are; we need to remain nimble to keep pace with changing circumstances. Today, more than ever, there is a need to keep an eye on what is happening around us, regularly upgrade one’s skills and stay ahead of the curve. This is easier said than done.
There is also a need to keep in mind that technology can widen disparities especially in rural settings and economically disadvantaged areas. It is often said that technology is a great equaliser. One can avail of online teaching to upgrade oneself, if one can’t afford to go to a university. But in economically disadvantaged families, when there is only one phone or computer at home, or none at all, it is impossible for the disadvantaged to keep pace with the rest. Women and girls are likely to lose out even more. Policy makers have to aim for a level playing field and to keep an eye out for girls’ education and welfare.
The pandemic has changed our lives. But the faster we adapt to change, the better it would be for us!
