In 1935, American science fiction writer Stanley Weinbaum presented a comprehensive and specific fictional model for virtual reality through his short story “Pygmalion’s Spectacles”. In this story, Albert Ludwig, an elfin professor, invented a pair of goggles which enabled “a movie that gives one sight and sound”.

Ludwig added: “Suppose now I add taste, smell, even touch, if your interest is taken by the story. Suppose I make it so that you are in the story, you speak to the shadows, and the shadows reply, and instead of being on a screen, the story is all about you, and you are in it. Would that be to make real a dream?”

We were slowly getting into the world of virtual reality, for sure. But the prolonged lockdown is certainly a giant leap towards our realistic existence in the virtual realm. One of my acquaintances changed his job from a motor company to a pharmaceutical company just by sitting at his Chennai home during this lockdown period.

One of my former students was scheduled to join his new job at a renowned public academic institute in India. While everything is closed, he was also wondering whether he may be allowed to join ‘virtually’. And who knows, this may become a new normal in the future world. Amid the corona scare, Bengali’s very own ‘Rabindra Jayanti’ has been organized ‘virtually’ in different parts of West Bengal, Bangladesh, and in many other parts of the world.

Singers, dancers and other artistes joined hands to perform virtually via video conferencing. Also, in the time of social distancing, Bengalis went virtual to celebrate ‘Poila Baishakh’ – the Bengali New Year. Classes in the schools, colleges, and universities have gone in online mode, as much more practicable. ‘Freshers’ welcome’, ‘Rabindra Jayanti’, and ‘Sahitya Sabha’ were organized online in different schools.

The exams are also becoming virtual. Even private tuitions, music and recitation schools have gone online. There is a boom in online teaching portals. As the world is struggling to understand how and when regular classes maybe resumed, will it ever be possible to get out of the ‘new normal’ set-up in the post-Covid- 19 world?

The push for social distancing, wearing masks, avoiding physical contacts will haunt us. My co-passenger in a public transport will always suspect me to be an asymptomatic carrier of coronavirus. So will I. Covid-19 has exhibited that ‘work from home’ is not only a rare corporate privilege, rather a huge percentage of people can successfully comply with it.

Consequently, about a third or more people might go ‘virtual’ henceforth – their employers wouldn’t mind for obvious reasons. Interestingly, German Labour and Social Affairs Minister Hubertus Heil believed that workers should have the right to work from home, and he plans to present a bill this autumn in a bid to see this enshrined in law. Many countries might follow suit as well. But it means less human touch, missing coffee sessions and chats with colleagues.

With Albert Ludwig’s “magic spectacles”, the chat sessions at the Coffee House with Nikhilesh, D’souza, Moidul, Amal, Roma Roy and Sujata also went virtual. We are enjoying, except that the occasional pats are missing. When my 80-year-old father became very sick during the lockdown due to some of his chronic diseases, I had no other way than to call the family physician to get the names of medicines and injections.

Telemedicine and telehealth systems were certainly there before the pre-Covid-19 world, but they were not widely used in most parts of the world. The Covid-19 outbreak, however, could revolutionize that – as doctors and hospitals are not as easily accessible as before. Coronavirus has severely strained the health system, but telemedicine, mostly through video consultation route to treatment, is being seen as a vital way of coping, including for those impacted by the outbreak.

The Union government has also issued first-time guidelines for healthcare practitioners offering consultations through telemedicine. During the Covid-19 pandemic, a private hospital in Kolkata has come up with an idea of virtual visiting hours for patients in isolation wards with their families and friends. Who knows, hereafter activities in parliaments and legislative assemblies, and court hearings might become virtual as well in many countries.

When we think of an IPL taking place in empty stadia, that’s basically virtual sports – without any direct connect with spectators. Bundesliga, the German football league, resumed amid virus in empty stadia, equipped with masks and tests. No wonder Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hotstar, etc. became extremely popular in this setup. The film industry has now found new ways to reopen amid a pandemic – Bollywood films are now releasing on streaming platforms. However, will the domain of entertainment be completely changed with social distancing?

We now have a set of all new terms. While ‘Zoombie’ is someone incapacitated by too much screen time, or a malicious disruptor of a videoconference, ‘Zoom fatigue’ refers to draining of energy resulting from the unusual stresses involved in interactions in virtual meetings. ‘Zoombombing’, on the other hand, is the act of hijacking and/or interrupting video conferencing on the Zoom platform.

Did we know that we have a ‘Zoom room’ in our house – the part of one’s home kept clean and inviting for use as video-calling background? Have we ever heard of a hairstyle called ‘Zoom mullet’, which now indicates a hairstyle developed in lockdown which is ‘camera-ready’ (presentable to a webcam) at front and sides and dishevelled at the rear? Interestingly, all the technology for going virtual was already there.

Only thing is that the usage of “Pygmalion’s Spectacles” was occasional in the pre- Covid world. However, it will dominate our lifestyle henceforth, though we don’t know whether that will be ever after or not. The digial divide in society is getting intensified. Amid the boom of online teaching, 86 per cent of Indian students are unable to comply. Their struggle to compete with ‘digital students’ would just become more impractical.

We acknowledge that. But their existence is merely ‘virtual’ to us – whether we accept it or not. This was so even prior to coronavirus. While facemask has now become an integral part of our dress-code, a picture of a mother with her toddler wearing masks made from a leaf of a tree got attention in social media. While people in the ‘virtual’ media were busy discussing whether that might be a symbol of a greener world or of poverty, we might realize that the mother and toddler are also ‘virtual’ in our realm.

Lakhs of stranded migrant labours, their misery, their desperate walking trails of hundreds of kilometers are all subject to our disbelief. However, we just feel them through “Pygmalion’s Spectacles”. Yes, we are very much “in the story”, but we possibly speak to the “shadows”. Can we really hear the whistle blow a hundred miles? The utterly tired but untamed persistence of migrant labourers is nothing but ‘virtual’ to us. As the lockdown is thus bound to end, the looming shadow of coronavirus would persist, along with the resonance of a virtual and vividly impersonal existence. A real dream, indeed!

(The writer is Professor of Statistics, Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata)