Ad Land: I don’t want life to return to the old normal. Here’s why

May 4, 2020, 04:40 IST

The lockdown has been hard. I get it. Our normal schedules have been disrupted, we’re spending far too less time outdoors and far too much time scraping the bottom of the binge-watching barrel. We’re gaining weight and losing our tempers. It hasn’t been fun.
Which is why the one refrain I’ve heard over and over again this past month has been, “I can’t wait for things to get back to normal”. And regardless of whether or not you’re a diehard Star Wars fan like me (May The Fourth Be With Us, indeed), everyone is optimistically prepping for life to finally return to some semblance of normalcy in a few weeks. But here’s the thing: I don’t want things to return to ‘normal’. Because normal sucks. Lest you think me some sort of anarchist, allow me to explain.
I don’t want to return to the ‘normalcy’ of carbon monoxide-spewing traffic jams, effluent-belching factories and Chernobyl-level AQI readings. The lockdown has shown us that given some room to breathe, and despite the abuse we put it through every single day, our planet still has the strength and resilience to not just survive but thrive. Hopefully, we will come out of this with a more balanced and aware outlook, now that we’ve seen the other side.
I don’t want to return to the ‘normalcy’ of our regressive, factory-line approach to work where employee productivity is judged on hours spent in office rather than tangible output produced. The lockdown has finally busted the antiquated stigma around the concept of Work From Home, and has forcibly dragged our industry into the 21st century. We’re more focused, more productive and more available for work than ever before.
I don’t want to return to the ‘normalcy’ of the DEL-BOM-DEL (or even worse, DEL-BLR-DEL) day trip, where we spend between 16 and 20 hours commuting across the country for a two-hour meeting. Regardless of your platform of choice – Google Meet, Zoom, Microsoft Teams or Skype – technology has shown us what a colossal waste of time and money corporate travel truly is (to say nothing of its massive environmental impact). Finally, and thankfully, the age of the ‘jet setter’ is drawing to an end.
I don’t want to return to the ‘normalcy’ of having no personal space in public. As anyone who has ever stood in a queue in our country can attest, giving the other space isn’t exactly a priority for most Indians. Covid-19 has thrown the need for physical distancing into sharp relief, and while maintaining the mandated six-foot distance from each other may not always be practical in a nation of 1.3 billion people, we will all think twice before presumptuously pressing up against a total stranger.
I don’t want to return to the ‘normalcy’ of a Swachh Bharat rife with public spitting, public urination and unregulated disposal of public waste. For too long, our collective lack of civic sense has been tolerated across the country’s socio-economic strata. The pandemic has taught us that lack of sanitation is not just disgusting but also deadly. A lesson that we hopefully will not forget in a hurry.
I don’t want to return to the ‘normalcy’ of a world where the words ‘work-life balance’ are viewed as shorthand for ‘shirker’. For decades, India Inc. has prided itself on an intense, ‘work-is-worship’ ethos which has left little or no time for such trivialities as personal life, fitness or overall wellness. To even question the primacy of work in one’s life was to risk being labeled ‘unprofessional’, ‘lazy’ or ‘not a team player’. The lockdown has finally shown us how fundamentally interlinked our personal well-being and professional productivity are. Companies are going out of their way to ensure that employees remain emotionally engaged and physically active – even within the confines of their own homes. Emotional well-being has finally evolved from new age to necessity. And not a moment too soon.
I don’t want to return to the ‘normalcy’ of weddings, religious processions or any other large public gatherings being given automatic license to disrupt traffic, sleep and life as we know it. As the past few weeks have taught us, public health takes precedence over everything else – as it no doubt should. We’ve learned to worship, wed and even tend to the death of our loved ones in smaller numbers, which has forced us to prioritise the people and things that matter over the flawed ‘the-more-the-merrier’ notion that has dominated our cultural psyche for so long.
What I do want to return to is a ‘new normal’ where the world is cleaner and healthier, and we are kinder and more considerate – to our planet, to each other and to ourselves. To paraphrase Rabindranath Tagore, “Into that heaven of normalcy, my Father, let my country awake”.
(The author is National Planning Director, FCB Ulka)