The Lahori Air that Lahoris Breathe
Just before one enters Lahore from the M2 motorway, two almost simultaneous phenomena make for a very disturbing sensory impact on the traveler.
1. The thick cover of what looks like a sick umbrella of smoke and dust hugging the roof of the city becomes visible from a distance of around 30 kilometers, and
2. The grossly offensive smell of raw, toxic sewage even penetrates deep inside cabins of all cars and buses.
The making of this almost surreal sight and disturbing smell is not so difficult to appreciate after one has entered the city. Driving along on dusty and smoky roads in Lahore, one is amazed at the pains Lahoris go to, to pollute the once fresh air of this city. As if the tons of thick suffocating smoke generated by lorries, tractors, buses, rickshas, and poorly maintained cars were not enough, Lahoris feel they must do their utmost, and then some more, to make their obligatory contribution towards polluting the very air they (and we all) breathe.
Garbage piles of all shapes, sizes and types including easily decomposable organic waste (e.g. fallen leaves, gardening waste, and mowed grass) have to be burnt. In order to add that special flavor to the sweet-sickening aroma, a bunch of plastic “shopper” bags are also thrown in for good measure. Shopkeepers and offices have to burn all their waste paper and cardboard no matter how densely populated their surroundings. An eerily beautiful mist fit for any Hollywood horror movie engulfs whole neighborhoods. The carcinogen laden smell lingers in the air for hours on end.
The ever increasing numbers of animal driven transport also have, what seems like their sworn religious duty to perform. They have to make sure that donkey, horse, mule, ox, and camel dung is deposited in a pristinely fresh condition on all roads, curbs, and nooks and crannies of the city. There shall be divine punishment if any road of the city is missed on any given day. The dung has to perform multiple functions: it has to be a fly magnet as well as a source of smell to remind us of our animalistic roots.
It is in this kind of air that Lahori kids play, adults work, drive and walk through. This is the air that we all breathe.
Is it too much to ask for people around us to be a bit more careful? Can’t we ask our mali not to burn garden waste or grass? Can’t he just bury the waste? This will turn it into useful rich compost.
Can’t plastic ‘shopper’ bags be collected and handed over to recyclers? I was pleasantly surprised to learn that a few enterprising fellows have gotten together and are doing a booming business recycling certain waste products in Lahore. I hear that they are even getting lucrative export contracts.
Can’t animal driven cart people be mandated to have their animals properly ‘dressed’ for duty as was the case in the not too distant past?
Is this all too much and too unreasonable to expect or hope for?
Hey Bilal, This is ur first piece here. I’m happy it’s about a decent contemporary issue. No question Lahore has been wrecked by these mischief-mongers, these hellish imps of the netherwerld with their plastic pandora’s boxes and poisonous fumes.
I would like to do some critique on your story: some grammar errors, some style akwardness if you don’t mind?
“two almost simultaneous phenomenons ”
Preferred plural is ‘phenomena’ as far as I know. Phenomenons, I think, may be more inclined towards being slangish.
“The grossly offensive smell of raw, toxic sewage that penetrates deep inside even cabins of all cars and buses.”
U mite want to remove the “that”; otherwise it becomes a phrase, not a sentence. And your ‘even’ might be located more suitably before ‘penetrates’, if you want…
No more nitpicksings, but if i may suggest, how about answering questions with your own uniquely cultured POV about lahore instead of leaving us all with unaswered questions? Wud be fun if u come up with some startling new way to recycle and reuse.
Thanks fer a good read. Keep werking.
7.5/10. Sorry, I rate werk here. Gandee adat I know, but I’ve found it helps me decdie the strength of a piece on me. And well, GOOD JOB!
Leaving the critique upto usman, I like the sarcastic humour in the piece. The dressing up of animals appropriately for their work, our animalistic roots, the eerily beautiful mist are some examples.
Good work! Articles like yours, about contemporary issues add diversity to the reading on this site
Usman when you are critiquing articles please make sure that your own comments do not contain grammatical or spelling mistakes. For example, unless I am mistaken, the spelling mistakes in the sentence below do not appear to be intentional but seem to be an oversight on your part:
“I rate werk here. Gandee adat I know, but I’ve found it helps me decdie the strength of a piece on me. And well, GOOD JOB!”.
I would suggest using FireFox 2 it has a built in spell checker.
Oops I almost forgot, Billy nice piece man, expect more from your end. Keep them coming Jigar. We have a lively community of some very talented writers here that can give you great feedback.
Oh. You’re right, Abidoon. I don’t check my spelling and stuff when I’m commenting. See, thing is when I comment, I go msn-free. LOL. That’s bad, I know. But well, whatchoo gonna do!
But usually u wont’t find much probs in my pieces…
1. Usman,
Thanks for your feedback.
Since I wrote this piece in a deeply disgruntled state in the last 20-30 minutes of an extremely boring working Saturday in office, and posted it as is without any proof-reading, I expected there to be many errors and lapses.
I have now made changes at the points you have rightly pointed to.
I have alluded to a couple of simple solutions / steps that can be taken to reduce air pollution. The point is that in many cases no fancy recycling or waste treatment arrangements need to be made. If we can just bring ourselves to care enough to observe some common sense practices (e.g. composting organic garden / kitchen waste instead of burning), this would definitely translate into a noticeable positive impact.
Note: “Phenomenons” is also correct: it is not considered to be slang. It can be used when at least 3 phenomena are being referred to.
From http://www.dictionary.com:
phe-nom-e-non
noun, plural -na or, esp. for 3, -nons.
2. Sidra and Abidoon,
Thanks for your valuable feedback and encouragement.
Cheers,
Bilal
Bilal: You’re right. I checked. Phenomenons is equally acceptable. I’m just more used to phenomena.