Column | Window Seat

Window Seat | 24.11.19

Pollution in Delhi

I had recently been to Delhi on official work. The moment you land in Delhi, an arid smell hits your nostrils accompanied by a feeling of being chocked. I live in a small town on the valley of a small hill surrounded by forest. I have never ever e4xperienced something like this. Its like- you are in a gas chamber.

In Delhi everybody is talking about pollution. Every middle class home now has an air purifier. No upper middle class child plays outside. Rich men and their wives/concubines are leaving Delhi and setting temporary base at Haridwar/Switzerland, depending on their religious inclination. Poor men living in juggi cannot afford to buy air purifier or leave Delhi. So they continue to live in Delhi and feel nostalgic about their villages.

While in Delhi I heard an Oxygen Bar had opened in Delhi. People would inhale pure oxygen at a minimum price of Rs 299/- for certain length of time. Next, we'll have Oxygen Bar in every city, starting with the metros like Kolkata, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Mumbai. Then we'll have Oxygen Bars in tier 2 cities. And ultimately in every village of the country- probably in my small town up there on the hill. Children will cease to play outdoors, like they have done in Delhi. People have already started living in mental cocoons. They'll live in physical cocoons. Reality and metaphor together at one place.

Cheers to that cacotopian future.

Community health workers

Over half of the world's 7.3 billion people, including 1 billion in rural communities lack access to health care. Compounding this problem is a massive health worker shortage. Dr. Raj Panjabi, Asst Prof. at Havard Medical School recommends engagement and up-skilling of community health workers, who would provide a useful link between the people who need medical care and the highly trained doctors, whose numbers are limited.

In India, this is what is being attempted now. However, some doctors have serious reservations about this line of action to provide health care. Their argument is: quick up-skilling will produce quacks. It takes 5-6 years of rigorous training to make a basic doctor, another 3 years for a specialist and 3 more years to create a super specialist. Imparting few weeks training is not going to be of any use. Instead it will be counter- productive.

I think we need to take a middle way. Looking at the scale and the status of health care, engaging specialist doctors for all for basic health care is njot possible in India. Therefore, we have to engage health workers, train them properly and equip them with proper tools to provide basic health care at places which do not have access to high quality medical service.

National Press Day

On the National Press Day (16 Nov.) I was invited to speak on challenges facing media at Lala Lajpat Rai University College of Law, Sambalpur, Odisha.

Incidentally Lala Lajpat Rai died on 17 November in 1928 in Lahore. He founded and was associated with several newspapers including Young India (published by Home Rule League of America, founded by Lalaji. Later Gandhiji used this title for his weekly),  Punjabee and Vande Mataram, an Urdu newspaper that he started from Lahore.

As a former journalist, I strongly feel among the issues facing media, livelihood and security of the journalists are the major ones. Without addressing those basic issues, any discussion on ‘improving’ news media is meaningless and fruitless.

Press, presently is under tremendous pressure from various quarters: market, political forces, lumpen elements, the changing dynamics of media business… the list is endless. It cannot assert its independence and fight the subversive forces unless the basic issues of livelihood and security are addressed.

Real Hero-Fake Hero

TN Seshan, the most consequential of the Election Commissioners, Sukumar Sen, CEC who oversaw independent India's first election, Metro man E. Shreedharan - they are the real heroes of our times. Unfortunately they remain unsung. Forget, the fickle public adulation, even the govt recognition bypass them. Populism rules.

Unless we learn to distinguish between real and fake heroes, we will continue to worship wrong heroes.

Alternative to Plastic bag

Besides, Dilli ka pollution, everybody, these days is talking about the menace of single use plastic carry bags, which is choking our drainage system across the country and negatively impacting the soil fertility.

We can use leaf plates and carriers to reduce the use of single use plastic. Here are some examples from Kalajhor village in Jharkhand. In Odisha leaf materials are extensively used for these purposes in areas which have forest cover. In Mayurbhanj and Keonjhar sal leaf and bowl making is a cottage industry. In South India banana leaves are extensively used.

These could be up-scaled in terms of machinery (productivity) and marketing (branding, packaging).
Photo: Dibyendu Sarkar

Boon

A woman prayed to God on Karwa Chouth Day so intensely that God appeared before her and granted her five boons. The woman asked:

 1. My husband should not go anywhere without me

 2. I should be the most important in my husband’s life

3. He should always sleep with me at his side.

4. He should look at mke first thing in the morning after he wakes up

5. He should always take care of me.

God said OK. And turned the woman into a mobile phone.

(Courtesy: Social Media)

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The author, a journalist turned media academician lives in Central Odisha town of Dhenkanal. An anthology of his weekly column Window Seat, published in 2019 will be published as a book. Should you want a copy with introductory discounted price, write to him at: mrinalchatterjee@ymail.com