2021: The Lost Year

A long time ago when I was working on the Miss India contest in India, I was handed a huge book by the organisers that captured images and information of all the three winners of the contest since its inception. As I flipped through the pages of history made over decades, I was fascinated. Not with the winner’s section, but the section that was on the ‘missing’ beauties.

Let me explain…

Every year during the Miss India contest there are three winners. However, rarely can you recollect all three from every year. The book chronicled all three beauties, including the ones we lost in the realms of time every year.

2021 …reminded me of that... Between 2020, 2021 and 2022. We lost 2021.

This was a year that stayed the same … yet brought in a lot of changes

We all hoped the Work-From-Home would be a short stop-gap arrangement. However, 2021 had other plans in mind. As we buckled down to work through the madness of the second wave, the mindless losses of colleagues, friends and family made us numb from the inside out. The obituaries merged into each other. And work-from-home looked like it was here to stay as was the depressing thought of the accompanying loneliness.

What changed was where home was. A lot of my friends, peers and colleagues moved out of the bustling cities into their hometowns with gardens, balconies, mountains, beaches and river fronts. Me included. Work from home became work – from – anywhere. A welcome change.

The year that went by too quickly … yet couldn’t have passed quickly enough

The first two quarters went by in a haze, packed with work as we helped clients make sense and grapple with the changes of the second wave. In my mind I find it difficult to segregate 2020 from 2021 and can only count campaigns and work done to mark the date. Drowned in work hopping from one video meeting to the other on full calendars, it was difficult to recall what day of the week it was. The whole year felt like a cheat year. Before we knew it, we were working on Diwali and Christmas campaigns, while wondering where the time flew by. We were glad of the work we had to be able to keep our sanity.

The losses, on the other hand, couldn’t be compensated in any way. In the last two quarters, we willed good times to happen. However, every time there was a burst of cheer and we put one step forward, Covid brought us back in place, pulling us two steps backwards. The job list kept getting longer and seemed somewhat unending. There were a couple of tasks on my list routinely that just got bumped off the table after a few weeks. The joy of a festival was cautious and always shadowed by a wave of loss and increase in numbers. It was waiting for the other shoe to drop… and it did. Every. Time.

The year that was difficult … yet made things easier to bear

The frustrating wait to get back to office, the feeling of life-on-pause, the conversations of ‘when we meet…’ gave in to long silences. These silences turned comfortable and made it even more difficult to come out and meet people when festivities hit the market. Talent across sectors burnt the candle at both ends and dropped out, creating a huge vacuum that is still to be filled in. Most people I spoke to also expressed their desire to just be where they were or drop out if forced otherwise. A great and dangerous time for introverts all over. More joined this tribe.

However, with these dips came the comfort of a routine. Talent challenged existing hiring policies and working models, forcing Corporate Inc to innovate across sectors. When hybrid model won and flexi working became the buzzword, it provided more balance and coaxed us out of the shell we withdrew. Making it an easier burden to bear. Interact with friends and family while having the comfortable blanket of silence around you. A blanket that I feel was very necessary for a lot of us to find who we are, what is important in life, and how we want to live our lives.

I did and am grateful for this missing year.

Authored by Tarunjeet Rattan, Managing Partner, Nucleus PR.