Old-timers, by which we mean those over 60 years of age, are having a bit of a laugh as the rest of us moan and groan about Delhi’s heatwave. (Actually, they think we are wimps but are too polite to say so to our face.) Through till the 1980s, they point out, the Capital’s summers were decidedly hotter and the surface winds fiercer than what we are currently experiencing. The transformation of Gurgaon, today Delhi’s most posh suburb but three decades and more ago a veritable dustbowl, into a treelined, sprawling city, has made it a rather effective barrier for the strong, dusty winds that earlier lashed Delhi each May and June.
It is also true, however, that those of us virtually melting as we go about our daily routines at work, in the home and on the streets of Delhi have to bear the brunt of infamously high levels of air and noise pollution which an earlier generation escaped. Alarmism in terms of rising temperatures, even so, is uncalled for; after all, Delhi is very much part of a semi-arid zone, especially in its southern and western parts. The alarm that does need to be raised is on pollution and the urgent need to bring ambient air/noise levels down.