Opinion On Clean Air
The air in Manhattan is clean. I am travelling through and decide to take a break in the Big Apple.
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The air in Manhattan is clean. I am travelling through and decide to take a break in the Big Apple.
Going down memory lane I remember that day in August 1964 when I landed at Idlewild Airport. It was to be renamed JFK later. With the princely sum of eight dollars in my pocket,all that RBI would allow me,I approached Immigration apprehensively. In what seemed an eternity,my passport,the I20 form from the University I was going to and my lung X-ray showing I did not have TB were inspected and then duly stamped.
I was allowed to go in the land of the brave and the home of the free. At which point the officer called me back. Now what,I thought,having heard of the stories of people sent back. He looked me in the eye,a friendly face and said I forgot,welcome to the United States and have a good time. Thats been America to me always. A business like friendly homely country,which sometimes forgets that.
But as I stepped out the first thing which hit me in New York and more in Philadelphia was that terrible smell,which I was to associate with hay stack factories. Later as BICP chief,visiting chemical factories in my own country I was to know,that was at best ammonia,not very harmful by itself but smells bad and the really bad gases,which could be there and could corrode my lungs.
An industrialist friend I spoke with told me that the difference between what they are doing then when he too was in college and smelt the same gases in America and now is that at one point they told industry to shape up or close down.
It was bad for some time as when helmets were introduced or the BRTS in India,but then people fell in line. We have not done it so Jairam is outside the pale. That is rubbish and we need to get our act going. For some time there will be complaining,particularly by a media which lives on the thirty second byte. But then our lungs,my seventy-one-year old ones and others forty or ten years old and some freshly made of babies,will recuperate and we will smell good air and if we do it more,good water.
As I wing back home,I remember the few days in the Big Apple. What more does one want? Good air and good water. New York water has always been good,even before my friend had developed the nano technology water filter.
Of course,I could also hit a perfect six by resisting my friends who wanted me to eat Chinese,Korean,Mexican and French food in New York,not to mention roti and curry. I eat rogan josh in Moti Mahal in Ahmedabad,chinese in Sichuan,Korean in the Shilla and latin food in Sao Paolo.
But in New York,I stuck to American for the bbqs,also the Jewish Deli run by a good Patel still gives you those lovely cold cuts on rye bread of meats. If I mention this,my passport and the Patels’ OIC card will be proscribed if fanatics of either religion come to power at home,god forbid. Of course,the seven grain bagel with Philadelphia cream cheese is also mentionable. So whats better than clean air,good water and a bagel with cream cheese? Welcome to the US of A,my friend and have a good time as he said in 1964 and then go back home and root for Jairam. In solidarity,I will say your lungs are my lungs.
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