Ecological Emergency: The Revolution We Keep Postponing

 

🌏 I Come from Two Indias—And Both Are Running Out of Breath

I come… from which India?
I come… from two Indias.
Those are the Indias I drag with me everywhere, like two contradictory lungs—one trying to inhale hope, the other exhaling smoke.

I come from an India where children wear masks and hold hands with each other…
and I come from an India where leaders hug each other without masks, because apparently politics is immune to PM2.5.

I come from an India where the AQI hits 9000—yes, 9000—yet we still climb to the terrace at night, look at the sky, and pretend the stars aren’t coughing with us.

The Ecological Irony Parade

I come from an India where we worship women in the morning and destroy forests by afternoon—because goddesses deserve flowers, but trees don’t deserve to live.

I come from an India that proudly chants “Green Kumbh!” while preparing to cut 1,700 trees in Nashik, including ancient banyans and peepals—because nothing says spirituality like erasing the environment.

I come from an India where we celebrate our rivers in stories…
and murder them in reality with sewage, chemicals, idol immersions, and our limitless faith that “the Ganga will clean itself.”

I come from an India where coal mines burn underground in Jharia, uranium mining deforms children in Jharkhand, and mountains crumble in Himachal because “development needs sacrifice”—always someone else’s sacrifice, never ours.

I come from an India where our music is bahut hard, but our environment is bahut fragile.

The Comedy of Development

I come from an India that takes pride in vegetarianism but runs over the farmers who grow our vegetables.
An India that “supports the troops” but not their pension plan.
An India with the world’s largest young workforce… ruled by leaders with ideas older than fossil fuels.

I come from an India where information is magically available when the PM wants to talk to us—
but disappears like groundwater when we ask about PM CARES.

I come from an India where citizens sleep outside the nightclub on the road—
and sometimes the road itself becomes the nightclub, potholes and all.

I come from an India where we scoff at sexuality but f*** till we hit 1.4 billion people.
No ecosystem can keep up with that level of enthusiasm.

The Great Environmental Stand-up: Nobody’s Laughing

I come from an India that breaks down the walls of a comedy club because people were laughing inside—
yet laughs so loudly inside our homes that neighbours can hear through the walls.
Noise pollution… but make it emotional.

I come from an India that calls the government the “ruling party”—
as if we still miss the British and want a colonial aftertaste in our democracy.

I come from an India where women wear saris with sneakers—
but must take advice from men who’ve never worn either.

Delhi: Where Breathing Is a Luxury

And then…
I come from an India where the capital city turns into a gas chamber every winter.

Where PM2.5 levels are 20–30 times above WHO limits.
Where children carry nebulizers to protests at India Gate.
Where demanding clean air requires police permission.
Where arresting citizens is easier than controlling emissions.

I come from an India where warriors are not always soldiers—
sometimes they are mothers in masks, scientists with placards, kids holding air-quality monitors like toys.

Which India Is Real? Both.

Which India Needs Saving? Also Both.

I come from an India that has Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Sikh, Parsi, Jew…
but when we all look up at the sky, we see only one thing together:
the price of petrol and the colour of the smog.

I come from an India that tells me everyday to “go to Pakistan,”
and an India that invites Pakistanis to come over—
so we can whoop their a** on the cricket field.

I come from an India that will watch this and say:
“This isn’t standup. Where is the goddamn joke?”
And yet, there is a joke—
it’s just not funny anymore.

🌱 So What Should Responsible Citizens Do?

✔ Stop depending on one creator or one news platform

Diversify your brain. It deserves it.

✔ Read

Books, newspapers, long-form journalism.
Your attention span is your new oxygen tank.

✔ Watch

Documentaries, regional stories, environmental investigations.

✔ Listen

To people who don’t look like you, sound like you, vote like you, or worship like you.

✔ Break out of your echo chamber

If content makes you angry too quickly, congrats:
You’re trapped inside an algorithmic jail cell.

✔ Travel the Real India

Not the resort. Not the Instagram hillside.
Go meet the farmer, the fisherman, the tree-hugger in Tapovan, the child in Jharia.
Travel is education.
Selfies are tourism.

🌿 The Ecological Truth We Keep Ignoring

India is breathtaking—
but we are running out of breath.

India is diverse—
but we are running out of patience.

India is generous—
but we are running out of time.

If we do not stand up now—
for trees, rivers, coasts, forests, mountains—
we will stand up later
in refugee lines
waiting for water.

Which India will I go back to tonight?

Both.

Which India am I proud of?

One of them.

Which India is proud of me?

None of them.

But which India still gives me hope?

The India that hugs trees.
The India that protests for clean air.
The India that cares about the Earth more than the optics.
The India that believes kindness is oxygen.

The India willing to fight for a future
where we no longer have to choose
between breathing
and living.

And as I stand here, between the two Indias — the breathing and the choking, the green and the grey, the hopeful and the hopeless — I am forced to ask you, the reader, not as an audience but as a co-accused in this ecological crime scene:

How many trees must fall before you realize you are losing your own breath?
When the river you prayed to becomes a sewer you avoid, will you still call this progress?
If the land that feeds you starts dying, what exactly will your patriotism taste like?

We worship rivers as goddesses,
we poison them as drains.
We take selfies at waterfalls,
we throw wrappers at their feet.
Tell me — how long will we hide behind devotion while killing what we claim to love?

And you — yes, you reading this —
how many times have you blamed the government while tossing your own garbage on the street?
Why does your outrage last only till your Instagram story expires?
If the AQI hits 9000 tomorrow, will you buy another mask or plant another tree?

Convenience has become our new religion,
and extinction its silent prayer.
So I must ask:

Do you still call it development when your children can’t see the sky?
When the forest burns, do you feel the heat —
or have you grown heatproof to empathy?

And what will you tell the next generation?
That you loved scrolling more than surviving?
That you defended corporations more passionately
than you protected the soil that raised you?

When did poisoned air become normal?
When did dying rivers become acceptable?
When did silent forests become our lullabies?

If not now, when?
If not you, who?
If not loud, how?

Because the planet isn’t dying quietly.
And neither should you.

I acknowledge all my sources.

References:
Vir Das | I COME FROM TWO INDIAS
KK Create on TRS हिंदी | Mafias in India, Addiction, Living Conditions in Dharavi, Pollution & More
Why Kumbh Mela In Nashik Threatens The City’s Green Heart And The Fight To Save It | Outlook India
Cops pepper-sprayed, assaulted at India Gate air pollution stir: 22 arrested, ‘pro-Maoist’ slogans under probe | Delhi News - The Indian Express