I hail from a small town that looks like any other small town in India. I still remember the day I made my first visit to the capital city. I was excited to the core eager to witness the magical world of malls and sky scrapers shown in films. I was set to move to my aunt’s place to pursue higher studies. I packed my bag with all sorts of fancy goods to prove before my cousins the fact that I am no country product dropped at their doorstep by chance. As I bade good-bye to everyone I was held back by my then ailing grand-father. He pulled me closer and whispered in my ears, “You are now adding your weight to the already over—crowded city. Try to make the city feel lighter in your presence”. I brushed aside the advice as part of the old-man’s rants and made way to the railway station.
Few days after my visit to the city I happened to get struck in heavy traffic one day. We were on our way to cinema and our car got jammed in the snaking traffic of wheels. I tried to pull down the car glass but was denied permission by my uncle. “Do you want all of us to choke in the pollution?” he asked on my persistence. I then looked around me and found logic in his reasoning. There were innumerable vehicles on road emitting puffs of smoke but none would dare switch off their cars afraid of turning down the air conditioning along with it. It suddenly hit me like a jerk that this is an unending process adding to each other’s weight in a chain.
With increased number of vehicles raises the pollution in the air. In order to condition the air in their space, commuters prefer better vehicles thus adding to the number of vehicles on road. That evening we were supposed to travel a distance of three kilometers to the theater. A couple of hours walk would have safely taken us to our destination. It took us almost the same time to reach the cinemas by road. Comfortable was our journey, yes, but compared to the amount of pollution we added to the environment in those two hours, that comfort has come at a really high cost.
Air conditioning has become a norm of the day for us. As heat waves soar high, we are investing more and more on air conditioners. We wake up in an air conditioned room, travel by air conditioned car, work in centralized air conditioned dorms and finally return to our air conditioned living spaces to doze back into the land of dreams. A deeper look at our routine would tell us that we have long forgotten what pure air feels like. The multi-directional wavy breeze has lost its identity in the run to condition air in personal spaces. These conditioners in turn pollute the air to such an extent that pure air shall one day be considered hazardous.
Only when we can feel the pain of pure air as it is being sent through the process of vigorous conditioning can we actually take steps towards restoring it to its actual state. One day I heard someone tell me that they love gardening but their apartments do not have space for plants. I took them to their terrace to show them the extent of place that they can provide for their gardening passions. Terrace gardening, community farming are some of the solutions to air pollution as they reduce the amount of air conditioning required. Also walking to lesser distances would also help curb air pollution. I don’t find any sense in driving to a park to walk while we can actually walk to a road side and plant some trees instead.