India leads again. This time it’s AQI

Let me share today another stunning milestone in Indiarsquos global leadership Itrsquos just a number but of course we know that numbers always tell the story The number is 517 and it measures something called AQI The worldrsquos cities and countries compete fiercely when it comes to AQIAs you might expect China led the list once hitting an AQI of 1600 on January 15 2018 in the city of Hotan near the Gobi Desert Chinarsquos capital Beijing achieved an AQI of 999 on March 12 2014Today though we can be proud that no other country comes close to India Delhi in particular with its AQI of 517 as recently as September We left Lahore with its August AQI of 273 in the dust Meanwhile poor Beijing has fallen precipitously down to just AQI 25 Tsk tsk Look further west and yoursquoll see Norwayrsquos Oslo which seems to be stuck atmdasha pathetic AQI of 2You probably know that AQI stands for Air Quality Index and measures how polluted the air around you is with carbon monoxide sulfur dioxide nitrogen dioxide groundlevel ozone and fine particles measuring 25 micrometres or lessAn AQI between zero and 50 signifies fantastic air quality and gets a green Oslo leads the worldAs the AQI climbs the colour changesmdash101150 gets orange 131200 gets red definitely unhealthy 201300 gets a purple very unhealthy Air over 301 AQI gets maroon and is ldquohazardousrdquo If yoursquore breathing this you are going to be very sick sooner or laterSo far yoursquove probably not heard anything you didnrsquot already know Delhi has been a polluted nightmare for decades But the Beijing Summer Olympics of 2008 taught everyone an important lessonmdasha cityrsquos air can be cleaned up literally overnightDriven by national pride the Chinese government almost magically conjured up blue skies over Beijing by closing factories restricting traffic planting trees and upgrading power plants The world was gobsmackedMore stunning Beijingrsquos kept it that way its AQI didnrsquot go back up after the Olympics In the last 15 years they have continued keeping their capitalrsquos air pristine theyrsquore no longer cleaning up only to impress visitors Today as I write this Beijingrsquos AQI is 25 Itrsquos my turn to be gobsmackedMeanwhile the air of Delhi capital of a nation that preens itself about its history religion culture and vast wisdom has only been getting filthier and more poisonous since I schooled there 60 years ago It must be because no one seriously mindsChoumlgyam Trungpa a Tibetan Buddhist meditation master who died in his forties in 1987 used to say that the environments we create are reflections of our state of mindMichael Formica psychotherapist says ldquoIf we are distracted we tend to lose things If we are disorganised the piles begin to collect If we are feeling disconnected the emails pile up and the voicemails remain unreturnedrdquoIf your culture teaches you that cleaning up after you is someone elsersquos job then with those words you have designed your living environment Delhirsquos AQI today is 500 because its residents have contributed to or tolerated the filthiest air on the planet considering it someone elsersquos business to clean up Seven of the top 10 cities in IQAirrsquos most polluted cities of 2022 are in IndiaWhatrsquos the Indian state of mind then judging by how profoundly poisonous our most populated cities areThe evidence is that we are a lazy society addicted to shortcuts and workarounds brought up to expect someone else to clean up the messes we create around us The telltale signs are everywheremdashclothes left on the floor weekends when you forgo shaving not caring how you look cars parked wherever there is an empty space irrespective of the logjams they will cause sinks full of dirty dishes that will be washed another day streets piled with garbage that someone else is supposed to pick up rules that others must follow but you will break if you can get away with itAdapting an old IT slogan GIGO Garbage In Garbage Out perhaps I might say SISO Sloppy Inside Sloppy OutsideOur superhuman acceptance and tolerance of filth and messes in our living spaces is kept aside only when guests are due Then we hurriedly clean things up hiding anything unsightly During the G20 recently entire slums in Delhi were razed or their unwashed populations boarded up and hidden from the worldrsquos view The skies however stayed grey and the air told the world who we really are a nation of believers in dikhavaDr Jordan Peterson the controversial Canadian psychologist revered by millennials for his outspoken blunt speaking believes things get better when people start paying attention to the small things they do in daily lifeldquoWe must each adopt as much responsibility as possible for individual life society and the worldrdquo he writes ldquoWe must each repair what is in disrepair and break down and recreate what is old and outdated Itrsquos asking a lot Itrsquos asking for everythingrdquoThere may be no other wayYou can reach C Y Gopinath at cygopigmailcomSend your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper