It seems as if my life is on hold. Everything has changed and I am going through a totally new experience! This is a totally unprecedented situation. The health crisis has thrown the entire world out of gear.
As the head of a business house, apart from protecting myself from coronavirus, I am responsible for protecting the health of thousands of my employees as well. Before closing the offices, I had emailed a circular to all employees about the basic precautions they must take like washing hands, using hand sanitisers, maintaining social distancing and staying at home. I appreciate each of my employees, I value their work and I am thankful for their support.
The thought of the economic crisis we would face dawned upon me a little later. When you are running your own enterprise, you must find ways of dealing with the different kinds of crisis that we may encounter.
Everyone is stressed and the biggest challenge I face is how to encourage team work. These days, we cannot have office meetings or face-to-face consultations. Fortunately, we have the facility of video conferencing and with applications like Skype and Zoom things are working out just fine. Personally, I am not getting swept away by the tidal wave of appointments and meetings!
One thing I have realised during this lockdown is the value of human contact. I have been writing emails and sending WhatsApp messages to be in personal touch with my team and keep their spirits up. We are in touch with our customers through social media and our website, answer their questions and suggest beauty solutions. Through social media, we have highlighted our hand sanitisers and worked out special offers. Our regular columns also offer beauty solutions and thus maintain the brand identity.
However bad a situation is, there is always a positive side. For decades now, I have been leading such a fast, hectic life that I hardly had any time for myself. Now, suddenly, I have ‘me time’. So, I am doing things that put me back in touch with myself, like painting and writing poetry. I am also spending quality time with my husband, listening to music and chatting. During this difficult time, let us be patient and pray that this dreaded disease will soon be behind us. Let us give a thought to the underprivileged and how we can help them. I appeal to everyone to ‘Stay at Home’ and heed the advice of doctors and the government. It is our duty. I am sure together we shall overcome these dark days and welcome the sunrise of a new day.