The Bubble

With the world looking to get to its feet, we in the coming days and months will experience still novel ways and means of restrictions. The word restriction sounds too constrictive. Re-inventing it with terms like ‘lockdown’, ‘stay at home’, ‘quarantine’ would make the whole concept more palatable. But wait, aren't these terms out of fashion now? I agree, they are. Then may I interest you with the newest term which would very soon do the rounds?. I give you the term 'Bubble'.

The global supply chain was among the first casualties of the coronavirus. This necessitated nations to look inward with the intention of creating and increasing capacity of life essential products to begin with. Be it ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ or ‘Make in America’, it essentially embodies the same thought. However in the short term everyone is trying to achieve normalcy in whatever respect possible. Once the process of reopening states and provinces within the country is on track, countries would like to restart air travel giving the airline, hospitality and the economy in general a much needed boost. Such travel will have to start within a ‘Travel Bubble’.

In a ‘travel bubble’ a set of countries agree to open their borders to each other, but keep borders to all other countries closed. So people can move freely within the bubble, but cannot enter from the outside. Travel bubbles are actually extensions of ‘social bubbles’. A social bubble is essentially an expanded quarantine zone which includes people you would consider safe. The social bubble is said to be an effective way to alleviate the social isolation brought on by a ‘home quarantine’. The social bubble we have created has 3 people other than us. These folks stay in our community and we are in regular touch sharing information about where we travel or intend to travel. All this is contributes to building trust which is essential when in a bubble. Maybe you can look around and try to form your own social bubbles.

Similar to a social bubble, the travel bubble requires a level of trust and commitment among partner countries involved. Trust in their ability to control, contact trace and possibly reverse the spread of the coronavirus. This trust though ideally concerned with public health in reality will be driven by economic dependency and may also involve political arm twisting in the coming months.

The little one celebrating his first birthday next month. While we had plans to celebrate it with a group of friends and acquaintances it is only rational for us now to limit participation within our social bubble. We can only pray that our friends would understand and still shower the bugger with blessings and best wishes!

As we move from home quarantines to bubbles and get used to changes in our day to day lives, the one thing which should remain constant are the unceasing endeavors to 'break ones own bubble' and reinvent oneself in these 'interesting' times. 

*Information on travel bubble : https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/five-things-know-about-travel-bubbles-180974983/