The “new normal”

Sometimes, it so happens that we keep hearing something being said by everyone around us and that something loses all the importance and flavour. What is “new normal”? Have we not been adapting to something new since time immemorial? Our transition from bullock carts to trains and planes, from telegrams to emails, from trunk calls to STD to Skype — where have be been “normal”? We have to adapt and that is indeed the truth. It is not just we who adapt to these “new normal” scenarios, even animals do. About 18 years back when I went to a forest and went on a jeep safari, I was told by the naturalist that leopards are very shy animals and they do not like to be on the spotlight. And it indeed was true, while the “gaur” almost stood like he was giving a pose, the leopard did note even make himself visible for a few seconds, disappearing and camouflaging beautifully amidst the bushes around there. Recently when I went again for yet another safari in the same forest vicinity, I realised that even the leopards have got used to the “new normal” for them — visitors coming in groups in jeeps and waiting to film them and put them on social media. Having people look at them and taking pictures had become normal for them and we saw not one or two but four of them just a few metres away enjoying themselves “playing” with each other on the trees oblivious of all the noise made by the three jeeps, the people and the cameras and phones clicking. I thought this noise is going to drive them away but they stayed put. We got bored of seeing them and left the scene to find more “hard to get” shots. So what we see as a “new normal” today is a deviation that will soon become a habit. So there is no “new normal” really, it is a deviation from what we are used to, what we are comfortable with, what we generally do. Isn’t this also “normal”?