Standup comedian Vir Das takes dig at Mumbai pollution
Standup comedian Vir Das has taken a dig at Mumbai’s worsening air pollution.
Taking to Instagram, he humorously compared breathing in the city to smoking a cigarette.
He said: “I’ll smoke a cigarette socially maybe fifteen days a year. The remaining days I’m a breathing Mumbaikar. Same taste. Today Mumbai was a Malboro light.”
Vir has often tried to raise awareness about the decreasing air quality in metro cities through alarming Instagram posts.
In one of the recent ones, he wrote, “Unless something drastic is done, the legacy of each government is going to be the pollution they let us live in. This point will probably be taken up when we realise the long-term effect it had on the generation just born, and those in old age too. Right now, it feels like new pollution, doesn’t it? And if we think it’s unrealistic, they’d let us live like that for a decade."
He added, “Some drastic policy decisions need to happen. Goes without saying that the decisions will make us hugely unhappy in the interim. We will moan like we did when we got new airports and new bridges, but it will eventually be worth it.
“I’m just saying it’s 7:30 a.m., and the AQI is 170. At this time, there are kids going to school and old people on walks. Air isn’t political, air doesn’t care about your income status, air isn’t religious, air isn’t patriotic, air doesn’t vote. If there’s one thing worth fixing, it’s the air."
India’s metropolitan cities are at the forefront of pollution hazards. In 2024, it was third most polluted countries in the world.