What’s lost and gained as virtual experiences replace real ones

Not too long ago, immersive technologies were all the buzz. They were supposed to revolutionise entertainment, gaming and a lot more. Holographic humans were to substitute real ones. Typically, these technologies belonged to the world of wonder, driven mostly by well-heeled consumers wanting to infuse some thrill in their regular experiences.Now, the pandemic has made the virtual real overnight, albeit minus the buzz and the hype. Utility quotient has outpaced novelty factor. Simple virtual technologies like video call have proliferated to find applications in areas that were not considered earlier.Holographic presence would have been great. But for Sreejith Nadesan and Anjana Assary, separated by distance, a simple virtual wedding via WhatsApp video served the purpose.In pre-Covid era, musician Bruce Lee Mani might have scoffed at online music classes. In the lockdown, his music school Taaqademy has pivoted overnight to offer online classes via video apps on smartphones.Feedback Infra chairman Vinayak Chatterjee now attends board meetings virtually. From shareholders attending virtual AGMs to new employees being onboarded digitally — people young and old, executives junior and senior — are all figuring out how to bring the real world closer via the virtual route.This transition is helping people accomplish many tasks. In the process, many are also realising that they save time, money and resources. But they are also waking up to the richness of real-world interactions that the virtual world can never offer. “The meta verbal signals are all lost online,” mourns Chatterjee as he remembers his past in-person board meetings.ET Magazine brings to you six different settings where virtual experiences have replaced real ones to offer insights on what is lost and what is gained as virtual goes mainstream in India amid the pandemic.So much lay beyond those board presentations. the meta verbal signals are all lost online: Vinayak Chatterjee,Feedback Infra chairmanVinayak Chatterjee has fond memories of life before Covid-19. The chairman of Feedback Infra, he is an infrastructure sector veteran who has been on corporate boards since the early 2000s. He must have sat on 10-plus boards, including those of JCB, KEC, SRF and L&T Power, and attended 40-odd meetings annually.“It’s the end of an era,” he says wistfully, as board meetings go virtual. Many things made those in-person board meetings special.76666558What happened inside the board room was as important as what happened outside. “I would call it conversations under the banyan tree,” he says. Exchanging notes on broader issues — from society to economy and politics — was valuable. Chatting with other board members helped get sectoral updates in areas that one didn’t have exposure to.Most of all, the meetings forged new connections and strengthened old ones. For Chatterjee, at least one board meeting would happen overseas at the global HQ of an MNC, like Holcim’s meeting for which he travelled to Zurich last summer. “Travelling together and visiting sites helped build a very different kind of connection. I call them the joyful perks of being on boards. Those things are over,” he says. There are other things he misses. Like pulling out his best suits, ties and cuff links to dress up for the occasion. “All that sartorial elegance is lost in online meetings,” he says. There were other tangible delights.76666569Like the KEC board meetings where the meal was an epicurean’s delight. “Being a foodie, Harsh Goenka paid special attention to what was being served. And that was one thing we looked forward to,” he says. He also looked forward to one-on-one discussions with Goenka — outside of business — over a cup of coffee and would budget time for it. “It always broadened my view,” says Chatterjee.A board meeting itself was a layered experience. Beyond the presentation, there was so much to notice and interpret. The body language, for instance, when someone is trying to be overconfident or is not sure about one’s data. “You pick meta verbal data of not just the speaker but how others in the room are reacting to it,” he says. Online presentations are very cut and dried. “During online presentations, faces disappear. You are just looking at slides. You can’t even exchange glances,” he says.He recalls a real board meeting with Prathap Reddy of Apollo Hospitals.The board members travelled with their spouses to Reddy’s native village, visited his ancestral home, stayed in company guest house and went to Tirupati for a midnight darshan. “How can online ever substitute that experience?” asks Chatterjee.I have yet to see how my new office looks: Indranil Roy ChoudhuryThe conversations kicked off early last year. The offer letter arrived in early March. Indranil Roy Choudhury, a healthcare sector veteran, promptly resigned to join Medall, a medical diagnostic chain. Based in Mumbai, he needed to relocate to Chennai to start his new innings. 76666578It was not to be.Lockdown began in late March. He finally onboarded his new job on May 19 — virtually. “This is the new normal, I guess,” he says. Before he joined, the HR department had sorted out all his joining formalities. His induction kicked off with a two-hour Google Meet with the CEO and other CXOs. It was soon followed by interaction with his 13 direct reports. The silver lining was that even the India logistics head, based out of another city, could join in. This was followed by plenty of one-on one online meetings with all his direct reports and senior colleagues. His day, starting at 9 am and wrapping up by 7 pm, is packed with at least five-six meetings. 76666591“It helped that I knew Sandeep from before,” he says, referring to Peepul Capital cofounder Sandeep Reddy who acquired Medall in 2017. “So we already had some working rapport.”Each organisation has its own culture. Establishing a rapport online can be hard. Frequent conversations and virtual tools of calls, video chats and WhatsApp messages help. Non-verbal communication can be tough to gauge online,though. “Having lots of one-on-one conversation helps. And the moment I sense a little doubt from someone’s body language, I probe harder to get confirmation.The trick is not to assume anything,” he says.Muhurtam is important. And there wasn’t one for a long, long time after April:Sreejith Nadesan & Anjana AssarySince their engagement last November, Sreejith Nadesan, 30, and Anjana Assary, 28, began making plans for a grand wedding in April. Over 1,500 guests were to be invited. A hall was booked for the wedding. Shopping was in full swing. And excitement was in the air. In March, the novel coronavirus scare started making headlines. “We thought it would be over by April,” says Assary from Lucknow. 76666604The unprecedented lockdown forced them to rethink. They thought of postponing the wedding. “Muhurtam is important. And there wasn’t one for a long, long time after April,” says Nadesan from Kerala. The couple floated their plan to have a virtual wedding. “Our parents agreed,” he says. The auditorium was cancelled.The guest list was shrunk to 20. And the grand reception was scaled down to a modest affair with just close family members. Fifty-odd people joined the ceremonies virtually. The wedding, which would have cost over Rs 10 lakh, cost just Rs 1 lakh, says Nadesan.“My friends managed to organise an e-sangeet the day before,” says Assary. 76666613Thankfully, her mom had already bought the wedding sari and some jewellery. Rituals like putting the sindoor an tying the mangalsutra happened virtually — the groom placing these next to her image on the phone screen and she doing it in Lucknow on his behalf.“We do plan to have a reception when things become normal,” says Nadesan. Agrees Assary: “Yes, of course. We will have a proper wedding when everything is okay.”With so much happening around us in the US, the graduation ceremony wasn’t that big a deal: Khashiff MirandaLong before his son Khashiff graduated from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, Luis Miranda had blocked the calendar. “We had plans to spend a month in the US, hanging out with him, before attending his graduation ceremony,” says Miranda senior, based in Mumbai. Typically, the three-day ceremony is a grand event with a host of celebrity speakers.76666620This time, the pandemic played spoilsport. Khashiff ’s graduation ceremony was last week.There was a stellar list of speakers. Parents from across the world watched on Zoom.The Miranda clan was there, too — logging in from Singapore to India, Canadato the US. The virtual avatar, though, was a pale version of the real deal. There were photos of the graduating class on screen, with each student being introduced.“I forgot to upload my photograph, so it was blank. I know my folks would have been disappointed,” says Khashiff, 23. 76666654As the ceremony unfolded, he and his friends had a good time in their dorm. “We were screaming. There was a kind of finality to our journey here,” he says, on an early morning video call from the US.After the ceremony, the Mirandas from across the world got on to another Zoom call to celebrate over dinner/ breakfast/ drinks, depending on the time zone. “We had a little party. This is life,” says Miranda, adding that considering what the world is dealing with right now, this seems like a minor bump on the way.Like father, like son. “There is so much hurt and angst (in the US where anti-racism protests are raging).The world is dealing with a large problem. Graduation is hardly that big a deal,” says Khashiff.Virtual music class has opened up overseas market for us: Bruce Lee ManiBruce Lee Mani had thought about virtual classes earlier. “But teaching music is such a tactile thing.It’s hard to replicate online,” says the cofounder of Taaqademy, a music school in Bengaluru, and lead guitarist of the rock band Thermal and a Quarter. As lockdown started, his music school with four centres, 650 students and more than 65 teachers, had to overnight pivot and reinvent for the digital world. 76666670Training teachers and figuring out infrastructure — from cell phones with great cameras to mountable, flexible tripod — were critical. Soon they transitioned completely to the online format. Initially, reactions from students werelukewarm. “Just half of our students came back,” he says.Lee then began to cast his net wide. What surprised him was the enrolment of students from overseas and small towns in India. They now have 450 students, including 30 from abroad. “For overseas students, our rates are very attractive,” he says. This has helped him avoid layoffs.Reinventing for digital classes is hard. The connectivity and audio can be an issue at times. The format too is limiting; it is difficult to build a deep connect between teachers and students online. But they are trying to overcome the constraints. “Now we have an exhaustive pre-class preparation,” he says. 76666680Prep notes, videos and references are sent beforehand to students.Rates and sessions have been tweaked. From Rs 4,800 for four classes a month, they now charge Rs 4,000, with two three extra practice classes of 20 minutes each thrown in every week. A big plus is that some of the teachers canwork from their home towns in the Northeast.“Teaching music is an intimate experience. The tactile connection is important for knowledge transfer. But we have figured out how to do it online,” says Lee.This is not the best way to teach music. But, right now, this is the only way to do it.It’s tough to hammer the management in virtual AGMs: Aspi BhesaniaDhirubhai Ambani’s AGM,” says Aspi Bhesania, 63, when asked to recall some of the best annual general meetings (AGMs) he has attended in his life. “He was impressive. If you asked Dhirubhai any question, he would reply immediately and spontaneously.” A veteran shareholder who has been attending AGMs for the past 40 years, Bhesania goes to at least 30 of them every year. 76666696Now, amid the pandemic, AGMs have moved to the virtual world. Bhesania attended the TCS one in Mumbai from the comforts of his home. But he was disappointed. “I raised a question, but they didn’t reply properly,” he says. He had follow-up questions, too, but in virtual AGMs the questions are collected beforehand so there is little scope for back-and-forth. “I am on mute. I don’t have the speaker to ask additional questions,” he says. 76666707Shareholders feel that questioning the management will become very difficult in virtual AGMs and that the latter will take advantage of the situation.Many shareholders miss the old era. Poor connectivity and bandwidth problems are creating hurdles. Some procedures can be difficult for shareholders who are technologically challenged. They mourn the end of an era.In real-life AGMs, at times shareholders would liven up the event by singing songs or reciting couplets for their favourite chairperson (Ratan Tata was a recipient of many such encomiums). All that’s over.

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