Dil-o-Dillidonon agar hain kharaab
P’akuchh lutf is ujde ghar mein bhi hain
(My heart and my Delhi may both be in ruins
There are still some delights in this ravaged home.)
The above lines by Mir Taqi Mir were written in the 18th century after Delhi had died many a times and risen from ashes regaining its breath every single time. Mir still expressed that there is something about Dilli which keeps it delightful despite having witnessed many invasions and assaults, even massacres. Each time it was razed to the ground, it comes back to life with startling vivacity. Nothing dies in Delhi!
Cut to today in the 21st Century:
कीचड़ से लत्पत बिखरी हुई सड़कें, एक दूसरे को शक कीनजर से देखते लोग, गजब का शोर मचाती हर दिशा में भागते स्कूटर बसें और गाड़ियाँ, प्रदूषित हवा, पानी के लिए तरसते सहनशीलता अप्रियआक्रामक निवासी, पार्किंग के लिए पेड़ों को काटदें और अपनी बात सही ठेहरानें के लिए बंदूक चलातें – ये सभी इस अभूतपूर्व शहर का अभिन्न अंग हैं। खूबसूरती में भय का वास है, और इसके विपरीत भी। आज की दिल्ली में आपका स्वागत है।
Roads covered in mud, people looking at each other with suspicion, scooters, buses and cars running in every direction making tremendous noise, polluted air, obnoxious aggressive residents fighting for limited water that too at times dirty, trees cut down for parking and Guns being pointed to ensure your point gets across without any debate – all are an integral part of this phenomenal city. There is fear in beauty, and vice versa. Welcome to Today’s Delhi.
Delhi has indeed seen it all. A city which is a combination of seven cities saw many a battles and carnages, epidemics and coups but no one ever imagined a Delhi without trees, Delhi without water bodies and drinking water, Delhi with unbreathable air, A Delhi which calls itself developed but collapses in one day’s rain, A Delhi where people burn at 45 degrees staring at 50 degree Celsius next year. Delhi survived cholera, Smallpox, Dengue, Swine Flu, and recently Covid too but will it survive a climate crisis?
In the last many centuries, Delhi on the bank of Yamuna had limited population, abundant water, fresh air and people with limited needs and hardly any wants and desires. In its journey towards becoming a sprawling megapolis which every city master planner’s dream was, Delhi lost its way. It became a sardine can and the influx of people has not stopped. The can bursted and its size has been ballooned many a times but every time it has grown bigger, it has only bursted further. From ensuring that maximum part of our sewage went into Yamuna to factories polluting the same holy river, the underground water and the air, Delhi has suffered it all. With an initial design of Lutyens, Delhi’s successive master plans never saw the light of the day. They remained on paper and Delhi for the first time was orphaned. Delhi has no more poets who are ready to go to the guillotine for speaking the truth loud and clear, no free time to talk about its wonderful past and definitely no one has the time to save the city from its in-house plunderers.
People continue to set up commercial establishments wherever they see some space, they build houses wherever they can for survival even if that requires inside the fast reducing forest cover of Delhi. Delhi is being walked by, trampled upon, run over by 33 million people as I write and this number is increasing.
To add to this climate change has being striking its deadly blow on Delhi year after year. This year has seen the hottest Delhi June touching 47 degree Celsius, rains are unpredictable and today’s rain was highest ever in a day in June in last 88 years! Millions of Gallons of Water is momentarily strangulated in this concrete jungle and when it finally does find an escape, it mixes up with the sewer water and we witness a water shortage the very next day. We have eaten away our water bodies and are eating away our forests.
And what are we creating? We are creating layers of concrete, building garbage mountains, lowest levels of water inside the city water table, lowest ever forest cover and a frothy stinking drain called Yamuna. Did you say holy?
Yes the lines outside the temples are getting longer and longer because I am every single day praying for my better health, more money, bigger house and fulfilment of all my desires. The selfish me is living my life without caring for a dying city. This time the politician’s houses in Lutyen’s zone are waterlogged too. It has reached their doorsteps But no one still bothers to raise the issue of climate change in the parliament. No one still bothers to call a debate on our dying cities and how future generations will survive. One wonders whether this time, Delhi will live another life? Maybe it will but looks like it will be without humans. A happier Delhi it surely shall be….
