The pandemic has created situational necessities that are triggering inventions and a resurgence of bygone products, behaviours and cultural practices that never ranked high on popularity charts or were past their prime.
Tring, tring! Who’s speaking?
Phone calls have made a comeback in the pandemic, in time before some of us would forget that mobile phones were invented as a medium of voice communication. Voice calls have been in decline since households and businesses started surrendering landlines from 2000. Wireless calling is making up for some of the volumes, but voice traffic has mostly given way to texting and video calling. Before the outbreak, voice calls which typically peaked during morning and evening rush hours, are being made throughout the day. It’s not only the pre-mobile phone generation that’s returning to voice calls, youngsters are also discovering the reassuring quality of the voice of a loved one at a time when staying in touch has new meaning.
Greetings go hands-free
The traditional Indian greeting made with folded hands is among the first things tourists encounter, and a way of life to the average Indian. As handshakes and hugs are losing love, Namaste emerged as a greeting that complies with social distancing norms and diplomatic deference, as world leaders and politicians will tell you. Going ahead, Namaste is a likely diplomatic protocol that may make its way into popular culture.
The milkman ‘was’ old school
In the U.S., milkmen are staging a comeback that even they didn’t see coming. The number of Americans in quarantine has led to a resurgence of home delivery almost as immediately as the lockdowns began in America. Milkmen are grappling with demand that hasn’t been seen in decades across quarantined locations, with individuals and businesses delivering bottled milk, eggs, vegetables and other sustenance in their once beloved vintage trucks. With lockdowns extending and people’s hesitancy about venturing out likely to prevail, the milkman and his truck will be making delivery stops for a long time, and even longer if our rekindled love for the past survives the pandemic.
Veggies in the backyard
Urban gardeners are rediscovering their green thumb. Working professionals stuck at home, homemakers, enthusiastic youngsters and hobby gardeners are discovering a new hobby and finding the time to pursue it. The inclination to grow one’s own healthy and fresh food, or at least some of it, has always been in our midst. It’s only recently that the phenomenon of growing vegetables, fruits, herbs and flowers in backyards, terraces and indoor pots is gathering steam with a significant number of people turning to eating healthy, natural and immunity-boosting food, moreso in the shadow of a global health crisis that targets the compromised. Growing your veggies, and eating them too is here to stay.
Washing beats wiping?
In slang: bum gun, bum spray, butt-hose, and officially: bidet shower, bidet spray or health faucet – a toilet fixture that does the same job as toilet paper. What makes a French sanitary invention from the 1600s become a sought-after product in America? When toilet paper stocks started flying off the shelves, the average American turned to a fixture that’s been in use around the world for reasons of hygiene. The U.S. didn’t take to the bidet for reasons unknown but the sudden interest in them is a sign of change. In case you’re wondering, allow us to introduce you to the most hygienic manner of washing off your backside after use. Here’s a tutorial that shows you how.
There’s more to our COVID-19 coverage than gloom. You’ll find inventions, environmental changes, face mask fashion, inexplicable behaviour and garbage glamour a more positive and humorous fallouts of the pandemic.
