Signs of smoggy times

Smog is back in New Delhi. And back with a vengeance! It’s difficult to describe the conditions we are surviving in. There’s that perpetual layer of dust and together with that a strange mix of fumes and fog and heaviness in the atmosphere. The eyes are burning, if not watering. The nose and throat somewhat choked. The lungs over -worked as breathing gets somewhat difficult…can’t describe the slogging the heart is undertaking!

Is this the capital city or some sort of a gas chamber! The very basic survival gets difficult as a majority of us are either coughing or sneezing or wheezing. And at this juncture its difficult to say how long this spell will last or for that matter how long we’ll last!

Why don’t the political rulers of the day throw aside the air purifiers fitted in their bedrooms and rest rooms and office rooms, and then see how we, the masses, are living in this smog - ridden capital city and suburbs. In fact , this brings me to write that I would prefer the old emperors’ strategy of killing at one go and not like today’s rulers who seem determine to kill us slowly yet rather too steadily. Dying that we are, day after day.

It wouldn’t be wrong to describe this prevailing situation as an medical emergency which requires an immediate halt. Several remedies should be brought into force: The odd – even formula should be re-introduced, not just for weeks but for months, if not for years. The Metro fares be brought down to the lowest possible. Air conditioners banned, together with diesel vehicles and the connected stuff. Garbage dumps and dusty roads be sprinkled with water…If the municipalities cry ‘ no staff’ for this level of watering, I would go the extent of saying that release( temporarily if not permanently ) the hundreds and thousands of under-trials from prisons and jails and let them be a part and parcel of cleansing this city from all possible pollutants of the day!