Mega City Snapshot

Living in this mega-city is always an experience. This time I am staying in a private sort of boarding house, though a very nice one. My room and bathroom are clean, newly painted, airconditioned and actually quite a bit nicer than my own place! I even have wireless internet access. There's a small airy courtyard just outside my room with various potted flowering plants, and a Madonna.  The owners live just across the street and usually visit every day. Most of my three plus weeks here I was the only one staying here.


But every day I would leave my clean cosy pad and walk out into the real world - the world of heavy, hot, humid, pollution- and dust-laden air. The roads were crowded, gritty, and often completely gridlocked. That's why I usually walked the 2 km - it was faster! I held a handkerchief to my mouth and nose the whole way to try to decrease the particulate matter inhaled. I disguised my laptop in a cloth shoulder bag and lugged it along too - great weight bearing exercise I might add!

The route took me along some extremely congested small roads with houses and shops opening very close to the street. Sometimes a hapless chicken would be tied by the leg to some post perilously close to the mayhem in the street. People were often seen sweeping piles of trash up and then lighting them, noticeably increasing the general haze. Eventually I came to one of the large canals that drain much of this city. I didn't really need to cross it but since the road on my side was under construction, it was sometimes faster to cross over and walk down the other side and cross back at the next bridge. On the far side the road was wider and one-way  and traffic zipped along. There wasn't really a sidewalk but there was a path most of the way and if I looked to the left and kept my nose covered I could kind of imagine I was walking along a tree-lined river. Well, I did say "imagine". In truth those canals reek and it's hard to ignore the trash and bubbling sludge on the surface. In the distance I could see some of the glittering high rises growing up all over.

I guess people just get used to it. I wonder if I ever could?  I find the chronically hazy, overcast looking skies and ambient pollution very depressing. Whenever I am here I soon dream of the blue skies, fluffy clouds and cool air of the first of my worlds! Or at least the blue skies and brilliant white clouds of the more remote islands, even if they too are hot! And I feel a little guilty because I know that I eventually will be able to get out of this city and go to a cleaner, prettier place while all these millions will still be stuck here.