A festival in grey

Diwali, and Delhi is again awash in grey. Smoke from crop stubble and fireworks burdens the cold air, thick with emissions and construction dust.

arun

Arun Kumar | December 7, 2018 | Delhi


#stubble burning   #crop burning   #environment   #air quality   #pollution   #Delhi pollution  
Text by SB Easwaran
Text by SB Easwaran

Diwali, and Delhi is again awash in grey.

 
Smoke from crop stubble and fireworks burdens the cold air, thick with emissions and construction dust. Moods hasten towards the sombre, time slows to leaden dreariness. 
 
People breathe uneasy.
 

Delhi Pollution
A lone cyclist is punished for his mite against pollution: the poisoned air chokes him with every breath.(Rajpath)

Lodhi Road
A display board screams ugly words and figures.
Doctors murmur a grave analogy: to breathe in Delhi is to smoke 20 cigarettes a day.
Can the message be clearer?
Or darker?(Lodhi Road)

Rajpath
The glow of morning is sooted over like the panes of a streetlamp in a dirty yellow nocturne.
An early crow holds back a caw of doom.(Rajpath)

environment
(Faridabad)

Faridabad
Fireworks cackle, hiss, jeer and roar at the supreme court’s impossible two-hour restriction.(Faridabad)

Lodhi Garden
A morning walker risks his lungs.
Most masks are rip-offs, costing too much but doing little. (Lodhi Garden)

air quality
An apocalyptic smog defiles the cityscape.
People drift like ghosts.
The air robs them of years.(Rajpath)

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