We at DesignUp have been working hard on our Deconstruct Report on the pandemic and how it has affected our design-in-tech industry. This is a long drawn out exercise with loads of data collected, interviews, stories, data visualisations and unending deliberation over how to present things to you. We should announce the launch of this report soon. In the meantime I thought of doing a sampler, like a teaser or a curtain raiser.

We at India are reeling from the second wave that is mightier than the first one. Before this became clear, about a month back, I spoke to 5 designers individually and posed five questions to them.

The designers are:

• Seema Seth, Founder - Studio Sky
• Aakash Kumar, VP User Experience Design - Makemytrip.com
• Upasana Nattoji Roy, Founder - Switch! - A motion design studio
• Rasagy Sharma, Information Designer - Gramener
• Fatema Raja, Group Design Head - GoJek

The concepts, books and shows suggested by these designers are below in no specific order:

• Hikikomori - Acute Social Withdrawal - Estimates suggest that half a million Japanese youths have become social recluses, as well as more than half a million middle-aged individuals.
• Michael Pollan - Michael Pollan has been writing books and articles about the places where the human and natural worlds intersect: on our plates, in our farms and gardens, and in our minds. Pollan is the author of eight books, six of which have been New York Times bestsellers
• We Cannot Go Back and Start Over, But We Can Begin Now, and Make a New Ending
• Sapiens and Homo Deus by Yuval Noah Harari
• The Body - A guide for the Occupants by Bill Bryson
• Super Intelligence by Nick Bostrom
• The Intimate Enemy by Ashis Nandy
• The Good Place - The Good Place is an American fantasy comedy television series created by Michael Schur. It premiered on NBC on September 19, 2016, and concluded on January 30, 2020 after four seasons and 53 episodes. Available in India on Netflix.
• Shh! Don't tell them there is no Magic in Design thinking by Jared Spool
• The Manual for Living by Epictetus