I am just like you - a simple service class Indian. A good lifestyle managed by a decent IT job here, pay my taxes, watch some movies during a month, go shopping with friends and spend some fun time with my family. I do bother about pollution, population, and politics at times – but these occasions are very rare, and maximum I believed I could do was not to litter, donate wherever the need be, and to avoid using plastic bags to the extent possible. I believed my bit was done. I was wrong. Something happened yesterday that stirred a thought lying dormant for quite some time now – what more can we do?
I was in an auto, on the way to work. The road doesn’t have too much traffic, it’s not a one way, but does have lots of trucks also using that route. I was in the best of my formal wear, all excited to reach office, and get ready for a presentation. I was thinking about the slides, just when a truck crossed us coming from the opposite side, and there came a rush of thick black smoke hampering the view along with the ability of my lungs to pull oxygen out of the air I was breathing all this while. The driver almost looked away; I tried covering my mouth and nose with my arm trying hard not to choke. I felt like going back and taking a bath all over again. After about 100 meters, I could breathe normally. That’s when I saw how poor little kids in the school van next to my auto were coughing and also giggling at what that truck did. I felt a sense of pity. Kids tend to laugh things off, but I knew what actually that smoke had done to them. No wonder the cases of Asthma are on a rise amongst young children in India.
Last night before I could go to sleep, something struck me. What if there was a speeding car ahead of my auto, just when the autowala turned his face away trying hard to breathe? What if there was a bike ahead of us, and the auto hit it by mistake? What if there was a kid crossing the road just then? What if to avoid such a thing, the driver turned the steering really hard and went down the road and hit some tree? I am grateful to God none of the above happened, but it’s high time we all did something to make the possibility of these zero.
What can an average Indian do? We are no brand masters to start an antipollution NGO or move courts to make the traffic police more accountable. Right? I thought the same as well. I could hear my mom’s nagging voice that how I keep wasting my time around, sleep on time, eat on time, etc etc. I thought - ‘even this time she’s gonna nag me 4-5 times over this issue I’ve taken up, and then by next week I’m gonna forget all about this’
And then it happened. I knew of the 2 very basic things we can do to stop pollution on our roads. All it needs is patience, and the belief that WE CAN CHANGE THINGS.
1. Whenever we see a polluting auto, car, truck, bus, bike or a scooter, we should drive just next to the vehicle and politely tell the driver that his vehicle is emitting too much smoke, and needs immediate repair as its making hard for others near the vehicle to even breathe. It takes hardly 15 seconds to say ‘Bhaiya, isko repair karva lo. ’ And then we can drive away. It’s a human nature to take heed of the situation when one keeps getting nagged by others once a week! And if this initiative gets a wider reach, the same driver can face this embarrassment at least 2-3 times a day. It won’t be too long before he decides to get it repaired.
2. Whenever we try hailing an auto, we should never get into the one which is emitting smoke or making too much noise, as the autos in Bangalore and Pune usually are. At the same time, we should tell the auto driver the reason we are not taking his auto. If we already are in such an auto, and then we see that it’s polluting way too much, just cut Rs. 5 from his fare. After a bit of argument we may want to give it back, but we must put our point across first. If all of us start doing this, it won’t be long before these auto drivers realize that just a running auto is not enough. It has to run pollution free.
Mother Nature deserves much better than what its current plight is. And even we can do much better than we currently are. So let’s put our voices together, make that yell stronger and louder.
That’s why we’ll call it - Shor Machao Inititiative.
Because sometimes it’s necessary for us to scream when the deaf cannot hear nature’s cry.
Seeking your support and belief,
Ashima Lohia
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