Author: Dr Monika (HOD Occupational Therapy and Joint Head Administration, NRF) | 7th February, 2026
Winter Bliss
Post – Diwali usually signifies the onset of winters in North India. The chill in the air becomes noticeable early in the morning and late at night. The aroma of roasted groundnuts and sweet potatoes, piping hot tea in kulhads, parantha/omlette, aaloo kachori on carts, is nothing less than sheer pleasure. The morning dew on leaves and grass inspires one to compose songs or write poetry. The fog that one wakes up too makes us feel that we are not in Delhi but holidaying in a hill station. As the nights become longer, quilts become our safe spaces and everything seems just fine, until it is not.
Alarming Reality
Slowly and steadily, the smoke associated with bursting firecrackers turns into something more sinister. Burning stubble to clear land areas or for cooking and heating, emissions from vehicles running on diesel and petrol, construction work galore, and all together, one fine winter morning we wake up to the headlines, ‘AQI (air quality index) VERY POOR CATEGORY: GRAP (graded response action plan) invoked across the National Capital Region (NCR). Schools and colleges will remain closed till further notice.’
Clinics and hospitals are busy attending to patients with red and itchy eyes, shortness of breath, wheezing, coughs and colds, besides other upper and lower respiratory tract diseases. Asthma and increased incidence of lung cancer are more serious consequences. Nebulizers are now a norm and are bought by families whose loved ones cannot be rushing to the hospital, every day just for nebulization.
With respiratory discomfort on the rise every winter, almost every household looks for air purifiers and humidifiers. Companies have begun gifting their employees one on Diwali and declare it a ‘useful and essential gift’. The monkey cap which was once only a regional thing is now a fad. Masks are in short supply and bring about an eerie feeling, taking us back to COVID days when only masks were seen, not the person.
Muted discussions and hidden fears
Nowadays, the talk of a normal household is, ‘what is the colour showing on the purifier?’ Blue is good, purple indicates unhealthy and red very unhealthy. Oh, it is purple. No school, sit at home. No going out, shut all doors and windows. Don’t let parents and little ones step out. Don’t go out for a walk, no open gym. It’s too dangerous! There goes my favourite scene of Manisha Koirala waking up in the morning and rushing to the windows to pull them open for the famous sunlight while singing a super hit Hindi song!
With so many restrictions in outdoor movement at a time when one actually needs to sit and bask in the sun (winter time), secondary issues are also on the rise. Vitamin D deficiency and mental health concerns (‘winter blues’) show a seasonal spike; children are always on the screen either for online classes or otherwise too Why? Because playing outside is now more dangerous than ever before.
I saw Avataar the other day. The humans or earth people also known as ‘sky people’ wear oxygen masks to breathe in an alien environment. That is still understandable, but right now, as I’m writing this blog, we need a mask to breathe in our own environment. How tragic is that?
Is there light at the end of the tunnel?
Controlling pollution through timely, corrective action is certainly an ideal plan of action. Yes, we are concerned. Yes, we are concerned. Yes, we are out of ideas. Why? Because all of us think it’s another person’s responsibility. The government, the municipal corporation, even maybe the RWAs should do something. After all, we are paying taxes and hefty maintenance fees. We need to understand this is why the situation is not showing much change, because it’s never our job, our onus, our responsibility.
We are slowly being poisoned, not by our enemies but by ourselves. An unrelenting society that believes progress is measured by the number of skyscrapers, has only itself to blame. The moment GRAP restrictions are relaxed, work starts in full swing as if nothing ever happened!
If each of us takes up the smallest of responsibilities with accountability, such as getting PUCs on time, using public transport, substituting conventional fossil fuels with renewable sources of energy such as solar panels, going slow on building concrete jungles and focus on increasing green spaces or lungs in our city, tomorrow we too can go from the ominous NUMBER 1 MOST POLLUTED CITY IN THE WORLD to a rank where we are not even in the reckoning for top honours. How good would that be.
Are we ready for the challenge?
