GLITCH

Our world has evolved meticulously over the millennia, very carefully curated to accommodate all sorts of lifestyles. Billions of population all around the globe were perpetually on the move, trying to reach somewhere, or getting away from somewhere. People got so habituated in this matrix of striving and thriving that when a pandemic such as a corona came, it did what a glitch does best. It halted the flow of the sea of humans. And no one was prepared for this.

The world leaders started scrambling for solutions, to save the economy, industries, jobs, health, employment, and of course countless lives themselves. Global thinkers, writers, and humanitarians all around the world jumped in the wagon expressing their deep empathy for the unprivileged lots of the world. Poor daily wage laborers, elderlies, kids, and other most vulnerable groups ate most of their footage. Some even wrote how this glitch is going to kill cinemas and sports, and the very model of day to day functioning as we know it. Some also expressed their concerns for the future of young school going kids, for the students seeking admissions in colleges, as well as for the recently placed campus graduates, where do they stand amidst the massive layoffs the industry has been seeing.

But you see, me and my fellow batchmates at the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, didn’t fall in any of the above-mentioned subcultures. As the world health experts said, we were not at all even near the vulnerable age groups. Also, we were from “design” college, which people assume, mostly accurately, exists just for aesthetic sensibilities, hence none of us were even expected to build ventilators like IITs or do some medical research as in medical colleges. Also, coming from a premium national college, it was safely assumed that financial concerns too were not something to be pondered upon.

So, expectedly, we didn’t feature up in any of these columns or any discussions. Not so surprisingly, our college administration too was well acquainted with the above-described milieu. Henceforth, we did what we could do best, from the ‘cozy’ corners of our home, and amidst all the chaos and concerns we continued with our assignments...