Corona dreams of the future

This was a dream that I had yesterday morning, a lucid dream. I jotted down the major points and didn't elaborate on them because it was Friday and we were having fun.

So the dream was about me biking cross-country in Nepal. Because of the virus, it was the only safe and allowed mode of transportation apparently. I bike all the way to Birgunj, when I get there I discover parts of by bike have been stolen and I'm riding a barely-functioning piece of machine. It's possible a tire may have been missing, which doesn't make sense even for a dream because it's unclear how I'd have been riding it. I try getting it repaired there at a local bike shop and people are laughing at me and the bike and amazed at how I kept it running despite everything. I spend a long time in the bikeshop for some reason, maybe there was a cute worker there or something why was I there why did I stay there.

This is a conversation I've had with my dad, talked about it with S too and they had the same idea to assuage my concerns. What happens if this dreams 'comes out true', because at this rate there's not going to be any reasonable public transportation in the country for the foreseeable future unless you want to risk infecting everyone at the same time. But there's still small clusters of people moving across towns and cities. With all business and trade shut down, there's currently not many money-making jobs or enterprises in Kathmandu. I wonder what happens if there's a mass exodus of people away from the cities to the towns. On one hand it seems unlikely -- Kathmandu does have access to best healthcare, education, job opportunities, entertainment and connectivity to the outside world. On the other hand, the job opportunities may disappear and all things considered people might rather live comfortably and for free at their village houses growing their own food and doing local trade and commerce rather than pay Kathmandu rents. If the exodus does happen, Kathmandu could turn into a ghost town, a has-been since it's mostly supported by rents and runs on the labor of those that chose to make it their second homes. I've talked about the implications in detail elsewhere and don't want to kill the dead horse, that's something that does concern me a lot though. S and other folks have said this opens up opportunities for innovation doing new things, trying agriculture, and provides a 'clean slate' of sorts for people to dare new things because clearly things as they are aren't sustainable.

Finally, a point about bikes. I really really hope this starts a bicycle culture in Kathmandu and the big cities, the independence from the need of fuel, the independence from crowds the freedom to go as far as you body takes you, they should be ideal. Hope the cities understand that the future needs to be bike-oriented not car or motorbike oriented. Knowing things, that's unlikely but we can keep our fingers crossed.