Witoubou Newmai
Glancing from one premise, we begin to notice that the ‘coronavirus life’ has also become synonymous with ‘returning home.’
The reason for focusing this distinction is an attempt to engage situation from one paradigm to understand more fully how this new ‘phenomenon’ may shape our later days and to what form.
As sea of humanity is leaving work places they call them ‘not home,’ another set is coming in to take those places they call it ‘returning home’.
When we talk of ‘returning home,’ we are also talking about the flip side of it, that is, ‘leaving-your-place.’ It is like, in simple words, ‘you-are-leaving, we-are-returning’---the re-exchange of places, as if to fulfill The Law of the Vacuum.
However, with the phase-wise lifting of ‘lockdown’ in several sectors, there is certain degree of hesitation to infer what exactly the ‘returning-home’ and ‘leaving-place’ phenomena may look like in a couple of months’ time.
However, and whatever may be the case, it is likely that “new dynamics” will be created by the ‘coronavirus life’ driven phenomenon, as commented by many people.
Specifically in the context of the ‘Northeast’ India region, we need to start talking about possible “new dynamics.”
Writing the ‘Afterword’ of “Leaving the Land,” a 2019 book co-authored by Dolly Kikon and Bengt G Karlsson, Duncan Mc Duie-Ra says, in the context of the ‘Northeast’ India region, that “returnees will shape the Northeast of the 2020s and 2030s…returnees carry with them knowledge of metropolitan India, of private sector capitalism, of care and service industries, of ways of making do, of different languages, and of various national and regional cultural forms---both embraced and rejected.”
Again, in the introduction of the same book, the authors have this to say: “Mc Duie-Ra suggests that the next decade, that is, 2020-2030, might be that of returns. If indeed the young wayfinders described in this book (Leaving the Land) eventually start to return in large numbers and hence bring their new skills, experiences, and resources back to the Northeast, this might indeed be a critical rupture changing things in the region.”
Meanwhile, as we talk about one side of the situation, we should not miss our points on the other side of possible scenarios to be created if the prevailing phenomenon of ‘returning home’ or 'leaving-your-place' continues for a longer period. In certain areas where skills that we don’t possess are in demand may give us harrowing experience to pass through. But that may be temporary ‘ordeal’. As necessity also brings creativity and skills, the malady of skill deficit will be soothed indirectly by heavy demand.
Whatever is also the case, more substantive questions will continue to be raised from various quarters, and we need to be all willing to examine counterarguments what they look like in order to put things on track. Only then can we carry our situation forward for good.
Now, the whole discussion suggests us in one way that it is also about how our society should channelize and guide the unfurling scenarios to our advantage.
