Go Green Because I Can't Breathe!

I’ve always been an environmentalist to a greater or lesser extent. I recycle. I use both sides of writing paper. I bring my own cloth bags when I shop (although I suggest doing this for the comfort of your hands as well. At the end of the day they’re easier to carry than plastic bags, especially the ones you can carry on your shoulders.) However, being here the need to “go green” has magnified about 1,000 times for me.
Being in India for over a month, I decided weeks ago that if I were going to change one thing about India, it would be the issue of trash. Or as we call it in British “rubbish.” Rubbish is everywhere here. EVERYWHERE. I wasn’t surprised by this but at the same time I don’t understand it. The concept of shared space is very different in India than it is in America. I’ve seen people litter in America and it always makes me angry because it is so disrespectful to those who have to share the space around you. It’s not that hard to hold onto your trash and throw it in a trashcan, especially if you’re in a car. No one should have to come and clean up after you as if you were a 5 year old. Ugh. Anyway, for the most part though, people in the US have respect for shared space and we enact programs to make sure our shared public places stay clean. In general I think we all agree that we should keep parks and monuments and public spaces clean of rubbish otherwise they look bad and they stink. Here, though, you’ll see someone cleaning up the area in front of their home or establishment. They sweep the rubbish off the porch and off to the side so that it’s not in front of their house anymore. But once it’s not in front of their house, they just leave it. It’s someone else’s problem at that point. And then you have sacred cows eating plastic bags all over the place. Even my host dad was saying how he was embarrassed to show me these monuments to emperors that used to be a great picnic spot because there was trash all over the place because “they” stopped keeping it up. I don’t know who “they” is. But he said how his friend had visited the US and went to a park or something and the American he was with paid a maintenance fee. The American explained that he didn’t have to pay it but he wanted to because it helped keep the place up. My host father really liked this about America – that we pay to maintain our public spaces. Then we went to another historical site out in the desert and my host dad threw his plastic water bottle out onto the ground by them. I almost called him out on his hypocrisy but decided it might be a little disrespectful. I wanted to tell him, yeah we pay for maintenance but a lot of also don’t litter.
But anyway, so littering is a problem and it really is, I think, just a different view on public space. I wonder how different India would be if everyone just stopped littering. I think it would be the easiest thing the country could do for itself, if everyone just pitched in to their little part. There’s a quote someone has on facebook that says “I’m pretty sure the majority of the world’s problems could be solved if we got rid of the phrase ‘That’s not my job.’” It reminds me of that.
However, beyond the rubbish everywhere, I have learned that my chronic sinusitis is caused by the air pollution here. When Minoo and I went to the desert and Jaisalmer all of my health problems went away. I could breathe! I didn’t have watery eyes! I didn’t have a sore throat! I didn’t have a sinus headache! I didn’t have post-nasal drip! I wasn’t coughing up phlegm! In short, I felt healthy for the first time in a month. And if someone were to ask me what the best thing about Jaisalmer is, I would say the air, especially being out in the desert. I tried to inhale as much of it as I could. It was absolutely wonderful!
Then we come back to Jodhpur and within 45 minutes it’s the same old snot again. The problem is the rickshaws and the buses. Minoo and I were sitting in a rickshaw at a red light in traffic and then when it started again, this big black cloud overtook us and it was disgusting.
So I can’t breathe here. It’s a problem. I never realized how important clean air is to me until now and I will never take it for granted again. If I could, I would boycott rickshaws or find a way to raise enough funds so that they could all become electric. I just can’t breathe. Today, I barricaded myself up in my room and it’s been great because I haven’t had to breathe any of the nasty air. But at the same time I haven’t seen the sunshine and I don’t feel like I can go walk around because I can’t breathe if I do. It’s also a problem in terms of exercise. My lung capacity just isn’t that much and the faster you breathe the more crap you inhale and it’s just a big problem. Yesterday, Hindu Singhji and I went to the pharmacy to try to find something for me to clean out my sinuses with. They only had Rx medicine so then we went to the homeopathic doctor, Dr. Patwa, who is also Gabriel’s host father. The big perk of this trip was that I got to drink lemon tea. That’s right, in the country of chai, I had herbal tea and it was DELICIOUS!!! That alone made the trip worth it. However, Dr. Patwa insists that there are no mosquitoes in Jodhpur but I have many bites that would prove the contrary. Because of this, I don’t view him as the most reliable source but apparently in London he brought a guy back from a coma with only homeopathic medicine so who knows. Anyway, they didn’t have anything I could clean my sinuses out with either. Boo. But Dr. Patwa gave me medicine which he insists will cure me. (He told Hindu Singhji that the reason Americans get sick is because in America there’s no fluctuation in temperature in a day. Like how it’s cooler in the mornings, warmer in the afternoons, and cooler at night – apparently that doesn’t happen in America. Never mind the fact that Dr. Patwa has never been to America…) The medicine he gave me was free and given that it’s all herbs of some kind I figure all it can do is help not hurt. Dr. Patwa also tried to convince me to take something for my epilepsy and said that in a year I would be cured and they could start tapering me off my medicine. Herb or not, I’m not taking anything that messes with my brain.
We shall see. At this point I’m feeling pretty bummed about the whole thing because all I want is some fresh air to breathe and to be able to go outside and run and walk around. Maybe the herbs will work and Dr. Patwa really is a miracle worker despite his inaccurate information about other things.