Leave Delhi If You Can
The Spirit of AQI
On Thursday evening, when the AQI was raging at 300+, I wore a mask to the outdoor launch of Sanjoy’s memoirs, There’s a Ghost in my Room*. Several people asked me whether I was well.
“I am, and hope to stay that way”.
Not one of the other five or six hundred people in attendance was wearing a mask. Senior doctors*, meanwhile, are advising Delhi folks who can, to leave the city during this Time of Foul Air, “especially the elderly”. I qualify.
And I can, because I have the financial luxury of being able to rent a home in Goa for the winter, far away from the Delhi smog. Most don’t. But it costs little to wear a mask if you have to go out. Even better, to ask if you really have to go out (Sanjoy is a friend and partner of over 40 years, so I couldn’t not go…).
Dilliwallas seem unwilling to recognise the long-term hazards of prolonged and repeated exposure to this smog. This despite evidence that “air pollution harms not just the lungs, but also the heart, brain, kidneys, intestines, and the immune system. There is an increased incidence of heart attacks and brain attacks, and there is more hypertension and diabetes. There is some evidence that even rheumatological diseases like rheumatoid arthritis are more severe.”
We Dilliwallas seem determined not to admit this evidence. Our government leaders fill their homes and offices with air purifiers - at our expense, naturally.
This Delhi government tender was reproduced in several newspapers*
But in the public realm, in which they are meant to serve, none of the measures they have deployed have made the slightest dent in the disaster that is North Indian air. My favourite of these token measures is slow-moving trucks that spray a mist of water into the streets. I call it ‘farting against thunder’.
Nor will they move beyond these cosmetic measures, unless we make foul air into the burning public health issue that it is.
This is here to stay, with effects that will last decades.
And, it’s on us.
13-14 years ago, we opted to buy a small apartment in a small village in the Konkan foothills, instead of adding yet another (and bigger) car to the garage in Delhi. Which was just as good, because the street values of the existing cars in Delhi touched rock bottom when the 10/15 year rules kicked in, and the village we invested and entrusted our lives to had the kind of air quality, water and peace of the sort seen only in documentaries about clean villages in India.
And then, in a few years, our village was blessed with an international airport (GOX/Mopa/Manohar International) 25-30kms and as many minutes pleasant drive through forest and bio-diversity away. (It already had a scenic railway station, THIVIM, also about 20-25 minutes pleasant drive away.)
Leaving Delhi is easy if one has the wherewithal. Or the motivation. I see a good number of people moving from urban India to the Konkan foothills of Maharashtra, Goa and Karnataka. Good for them if they can merge with the culture and lifestyle.
But I would like to add one small request - leave if you can, but aim for a simpler lifestyle. There is really no need to bring the concept of large houses, big cars and high running expenses when shifting for cleaner air and water. These are what caused the problem in the first case in wherever people shifted from.
And yes, please rent for a full 12-month cycle, to get a better grip on what life really is about in the Konkan. Please do not rush into buying.
Another question I get is - medical? The answer is - when your air and water are cleaner, you tend to not fall sick so often; and for serious medical care, there is no dearth of medical tourism options.
Yet another question - where will the children / friends stay when they visit? (We live in a 1 BHK+Study kind of apartment). The answer is simple - we either bunk in somehow, or we all shift into a resort or equivalent. There are plenty of home-stays nearby too.
Mohit - apologies for making this almost an essay, but I had to let flow.
Good luck to all of us.
Veeresh Malik
Good morning Mohit,
I am a veteran who has had the benefit of my services tenure to be at the most pristine places of deployment and an ingrained love for fauna & fauna. I subscribe to your articles as I can recognise someone whose love for nature and environment is exceptional.
I have had a fairly broad spectrum of work experience after I took pre-mature retirement and am currently a small co-founder of the India based company who has technical collaboration with Airvoice Global in bringing a technology approach to resolve Air Quality Challenges.
I loved your article and wanted to ask your permission to qoute extracts from it in my LinkedIn post. I shall of course ascribe the source.
War. Regards,
Ashwini