“Mein Samay Hoon!”, remember these lines from the 80s epic Mahabharat? Time has taught humans a lot of things which are worth remembering, rest we easily forgot. While we’re discussing time, let’s go back in time by about 150 years when flying wasn’t a reality and the idea seemed stupid enough to even give it a thought. However, in 1903 Wright Bothers made it possible and showed the world what humans were capable of by taking the first flight in the recorded history of the world. Movies also have evolved, especially horror movies where there is a separate genre where Zombies are taking over the world.
The idea at this moment seems so impossible that zombies could exist. Such ideas look good for entertainment in Hollywood/Bollywood flicks. However, if we look at the current situation from a different perspective as we have spent 50+ days in lockdown, COVID-19 is no less than zombie apocalypse where people are running away from the affected individuals or families and maintaining a safe distance. Lockdown has forced people to stay indoors, which is an activity we weren’t ready for. Since the time we understood anything, we have gone out with parents, played with friends, went to school, went to college later office and much more. Our daily activities involved us going out. Being a social animal, staying at home is turning us in sort of Zombies which we see in the movies. Like for instance, picture this Youtube Zombies, from kids to adults we can see everyone banking on youtube app for everything from baking a cake to a DIY face mask to animated content for kids to news.
OTT Zombies who are glued to Netflix or Amazon or Hotstar or Zee 5 or MX Player or whatever and only zone out when the episodics end; and also disrupting the sleep pattern in the process. Then effervescent ‘Insta & Snapchat Zombies’, who have ended up posting every mood from boredom to breakups.
World saw a new type of zombie which were more rampant at the time of advent of Lockdown 1.0, the Grocery Shopping zombie, who got paranoid everyday with the thought that the supplies at home are dwindling and has the need to go out to buy whatever is available and yes in surplus. Least we talk about Sleep Zombies, Hungry Zombies, OCD Zombies and mmmore!
Wearing masks will be a new norm and an essential part of our everyday lives. The markets and e-com sites are going to be flooded with expensive designer masks soon that humans will not be able to survive without.
Talking about shopping, retailers of non-essentials have started announcing pre-bookings and offers to attract the ‘Shopper Zombie’ in us but, one must be aware of how discounts work and also develop financial discipline in these COVID-19 times.
Many of startups, and mid-size companies have struggled to acquire scale and differentiate themselves. They could become “zombie” firms in this slowdown, prompting their investors to push for distress sales.
Well it’s “Time to nut up or shut up”, as one of the most memorable quote from Zombie movies goes. So which Zombie are you fixated with?
The article is authored by Divyakumar Roy, a content expert with more than 15 years experience in leading digital content firm.
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