A note on the issue: The outlook is hazy
Clean air is a privilege anywhere in urban India. We find out how people across the country are protecting themselves
We didn’t need Bryan Johnson to tell us to wear N95 masks because our air is acrid but the tech billionaire, who is trying to live forever, was right when he posted that he was “shocked by how normalized Indians are to poor air quality”. We don’t care about the quality of the air we breathe. Johnson was in Mumbai for six days when the AQI was at 100+, which is not bad for an Indian city that often has readings to rival Delhi, but for a man who bathes in LED light, swallows about one hundred supplements a day to defy death, and has tried taking blood plasma from his teenaged son, “solving air quality in India is more important than curing cancer”.
Also read: Air pollution is a national problem. Can you live with it?
Plummeting air quality makes headlines, but has no impact—and that’s what our cover story is about this week. If you’ve lived in Delhi for any period of time, or even visited, you’ll know that for its longtime residents, blue skies and a nip in the air equals good weather and a reason to move parties outdoors. Walkers stride around Lodhi Garden with a stray surgical mask at best, golfers play their usual rounds with glow-balls, and runners lace up for 5Ks in reflective jackets—as long as they can’t see a pall in the air.
Clean air is a privilege anywhere in urban India, whether you’re in the posh parts or the poor ones, north or south. The only difference is the way in which you insulate yourself from the truth: that the air we breathe isn’t very good for us. We find out how people across the country are protecting themselves when moving away isn’t an option, and ways to think about what we can each do.
Our other stories strike a different note. Bangkok-based chef Garima Arora tells Lounge about retaining her two Michelin stars for a second year running and her plans for a bar in Gurugram, and restaurateur Rakshay Dhariwal talks about rethinking the way Indians dine. Photographer Dayanita Singh chats about her Museums series, which places her images within wooden pillars and cupboard-like frames. She’s getting people to think about the photograph as memory, décor, art, archive, anything beyond a just 2D object. We also have our set pieces—what to watch, wear, eat, do and read this weekend and in the week ahead.
Write to the editor at shalini.umachandran@htlive.com
@shalinimb
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First Published:7 Dec 2024, 08:00 AM IST
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