As it turns out, there is a section that is not affected by the pandemic - the freelancers. You see, all kinds of companies and big businesses have been hit adversely. So they really need to negotiate with a freelancer for the last penny, and of course, paying an advance is out of the question. And paying immediately after delivery is a "Surely, you're joking" situation.
Although the grave Coronavirus has affected corporate India, the freelance populace continues to live a sweet, innocent pandemic-free world where money is not required for a transaction. Let's say feedback is delayed by 5 days or 10 days or 20 or who knows, how much time. As a freelancer you don't need to know because your time, effort, and energy is the dissipating, amorphous stuff that Russian scientists observe in somber Netflix series. (It's there - but not really.) So,let's say, in those 10 or 20 days or candy-floss infinity, the freelancer goes to the market to buy vegetables or medicines. Said person does not need to pay in cash. We can buy a pound of veggies or some antibiotics by sharing our version of "who killed him" or "she needed security because those shades she was wearing was vintage Dior - you know what "VINTAGE DIOR' means,, right?
Now, freelancers tend to make rather outrageous demands. Some have been known to ask project managers for project plans, which is why it is fit that they must be punished by delaying feedback, payment, or response to the question. Also, our near-exasperated situation coats us with such miraculous charisma that should we fall sick, hospitals would bend over backward to take care of us. We wouldn't need insurance and we wouldn't have money. That, of course, will be stuck with the Finance Department of some company manned by Russian scientists, the sort who observe amorphous gases with gravitas.
Freelancing is the new vaccine. It's the stuff that a plummeting GDP can't touch. We operate in a dimension where hunger or rent don't feature, neither the sickness or failing health of a loved one. If we need to donate money or help out someone, we talk to a Happy Void and help is provided.
You have our sympathies, corporate India. On behalf of any of us freelancers who have expected you to show grace and courtesy to inform someone of a delay in payment or feedback and such things, I am sorry. We, in our ivory towers, forget how difficult it is for you to retain humaneness in this sordid and difficult time. We wouldn't know. We only get paid for the time we work. Not for the time we wait. We also lose money if we don't deliver as per expectations. Even if the expectation is: "I want something good really quick." So we cannot possibly understand the duress our constant request for communication and more details puts you through.
Really sorry, pals! You are deserving of your own hashtag movement: #Only your lives matter.
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