Depair
and Pessimism was abound and doomsday declared by almost the entire humanity in
March 2020. People involved with stock markets, most of whom had fading
memories of March 2000 and Oct 2008 were in utter disbelief and majority of the
fund managers with less than 10 years in business couldn’t believe that markets
could make 2-3 days of downward circuits and March 2020 would remain etched in
the memory of humanity for a long time.

But
the year has been phenomenal in every aspect of measurement and fathom and 2020
might go down in history as one of the best years of the century and here is my
argument in continuation to a piece that I wrote a few months ago ‘Corona May Be The Biggest Blessing In Disguise
for Humanity’, …..

1. Humans wished well for everyone else on the
   planet – Such a far cry from the erstwhile world order where ethnicity, religions
   and beliefs were the divisive catalysts.
2. Global Medical Fraternity came together to
   share data and research and a slew of vaccines were made with great proven
   efficacy in just less than 9 months – pertinent to mention that only 7 vaccines
   were ever successfully produced in the last 100 years.
3. Altruism got redefined by the frontline Covid
   Warriors across the planet. These noble souls that form the medical fraternity
   worked for days without any rest, put their lives in danger, hundreds lost
   lives but still held fort for the greater
   common good of humanity. Our heads must bow down in deepest debt of gratitude
   for them.
4. Families found solace and enhanced emotional
   connect amongst and within each other and started respecting the virtues of
   looking inwards. The joy of spending time while acknowledging and appreciating
   what we do for each other (often taken for granted) has been a virtuous
   re-discovery.
5. Friends for a season or a reason lost
   significance and we longed only for true friends for a lifetime and rekindled
   the lost connects and relationships that were always strong and reliable but
   had lost sheen because of the natural efflux of time.
6. The struggle by all people trying to connect
   digitally through skype and webex and failing miserably over the last 2
   decades, came to an end with the newfound frictionless experience provided by
   ZOOM. Never ever in the history has a noun become a verb in such short time.
   Even Google took a whole lot longer to become a verb.
7. The struggle ordained by executives wearing
   their ill-fitting suits and soiled tie knots that hadn’t been ever untied and taking
   early morning flights at wee hours to travel across the country and globe to
   attend futile meetings, mostly non productive a the cost of the corporate
   profits – came to an end and sales calls and meetings could just be acceptably
   attended by one and all. But for an accidental camera-direction malfunction (that
   became global news instantly to the benefit of lockdowned populace
   longing for amusement), just a boxer with a shirt and tie – almost became the
   globally accepted attire as long as the camera didn’t capture it.
8. Homemakers unapologetically discovered guinea
   pigs within their families by experimenting with exotic cuisines without the
   option to their partners to give any honest feedback about their culinary
   skills, but on a serious note discovered the orgasmic joy of cooking and
   experimenting with gastronomy. I personally leant the fine art of making shushi
   and some of my friends who also happen to be members of the mutual appreciation
   club believe that I can probably give competition to Sukiyabashi Jiro
9. Mark Zukerberg and Steve Jobs are legends who
   changed the world but another personality trait of theirs, of an entire life
   wearing similar clothes became a fashion trend. Most of us have found the
   amazing virtues of minimalism where we could consciously differentiate between
   our needs and wants and could discover virtues of ikigai style of living and conduct and thereby
   decluttering our lives.
10. Contrary to the pursuit of materialism and
    proving a point to someone around us, humans learnt that health is the real
    wealth. The suddenness of the possibility of kicking the bucket made us all
    realise that we and only we are responsible for how we treat ourselves and our
    body that’s the temple of our existence. People are exercising more, eating
    less and are generally demonstrating gratitude towards simple things such as
    good health.

But
the winner is none of all this….

The
winner of this year gone by, is
human resilience and adaptability that makes us homo-sapiens a truly advanced
and evolved creation of God that adapts itself to changing circumstances, is
audaciously hopeful of a brighter future, demonstrates grace in adversity and
above all can overcome all vicissitudes that are thrown towards us.

A
rotten lemon came by in the garb of 2020 and the humanity made the best lemonade.

What
lies ahead

1. More tolerance and appreciation of all the
   things around us. The bounty of nature and respect for mother earth.
2. Bitcoin lovers will be able to buy their
   Bugattis
3. The stock market lovers will continue to
   believe that there is no bubble and that Nifty PE of 40 and over is very
   justified because quality is never expensive and one cannot overpay for
   quality.
4. Indian gene pool has proven itself to be the
   most superior – let there be no doubt. The control of the pandemic and dramatic
   flattening of the curve isn’t because of any amazing managerial, political or
   medical superiority. Our peninsula seems to be producing the most intelligent
   and most resilient homo sapiens. Survival of the fittest stands proved.
5. IMHO the Indian street food, Pani Pooris and
   Chana Bhaturas (cooked in suspicious conditions of  hygiene) might have
   built the strongest immunity for Indians over the last 100 years.
6. India is likely to emerge many shades stronger
   for the respect that it has garnered over the last few years. Our rapidly
   advancing economic, social and political clout will make us emerge into a force
   to reckon with while China seems to have spread itself terribly thin because of
   its misadventures (border, virus, currency manipulation, mysterious
   disappearance of dissenters) on various fronts.
7. Meaningful affiliations and alliances with India
   is no longer an option but a necessity for the G7 nations
8. As deep-rooted corruption ebbs away slowly
   albeit steadily, India’s friction points, ease of doing business,
   infrastructure will all dramatically improve catalysing a steep uptick in GDP.
   5 Tr $ by 2025 might be a distant dream but 10 Trillion by 2030 looks
   achievable.
9. Travel and Tourism Industry ( from the present
   7 million inbound and 50 million outbound ) is set to see a resurgence like
   never before. Imagine the demand uptick when these 50 million outbound Indians
   decide to discover the virtues and under-appreciated tourist treasures within
   India.
10. The coming decade undoubtedly belongs to India
    and we will see it achieving its colloquial adage ‘the golden bird’ all over
    again

Our
responsibilities as a citizen

Kennedy
said – ‘Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your
country’ – As responsible citizens if each one of us just resolves (just one
resolve) to stay away from any form of corruption, corruption through
diluted intent, thought, deed – at every level, and not fan it by resigning to
the demands of the system. Stop maintaining neutrality in the times of moral
crisis, this itself will remove dozens and dozens of friction points from the
system that’s presently known to be sluggish and inefficient and will
eventually bump up our GDP, national profitability and global stature by hundreds
of basis points.

Happy
New Year, God Bless You and God Bless India. 

follow manu on twitter @manurishiguptha