IS IT FOG OR IS IT SMOG?
Pic.: Chetna Shetty
“Is it fog or is it smog?” a lady asked me
yesterday, when I said to her 'fog', pointing at the smoky morning-atmosphere
outside. That’s the time I realized that ‘fog’ was different from ‘smog’.
Well, I knew the
difference; but, because we rarely saw this kind of morning atmosphere in the
end of January, perhaps, I had forgotten about it…
That was, also, the
time I realized, that there are words, in English dictionary, which belong to
the same lineage… like mist, haze, vog etc.
I got curious to
know the exact difference… And, you know how easy it is to find the difference,
these days. .. It is all just a click away. And, yes, you can get it without
moving from your seat!
So, because it is
all there for you at your finger-tip, I am not going to tell you, in this Post,
how fog, smog, mist, haze and vog are different…
Pease find out, if
you wish to clear the fog!
“In the kingdom of the blind, the one-eyed is
the kind.” Seriously, we all, here on this foggy or smoggy planet, are the
one-eyed kings… We rule the kingdoms of the blind!
My name is Gerald.
Now, if you call me ‘Gerald’ (as in ‘Gas’) and not as ‘Jerald’, what difference
does it make? You haven’t made a study on it, I bet… It is just that you,
somehow, picked it up correctly or not correctly quite early when you had come across this name –
‘Gerald’… That’s all…
Don’t tell me, you
are smarter than the guy who calls me ‘Gerald’ of ‘Gas’... or, dumber than the guy who calls me 'Jerald'!!
Then comes my
funny surname – ‘D’Cunha’. This is Maharashtra, sir, and, this is our city – ‘amchi Mumbai. So, let me not make a big
deal when the caller on the other end enquires, sweetly, “Am I speaking to
Mister DeeeCHUNNNA’!
They really take
that long to say that… ‘DeeeCHUNNNA’!
Don’t you say,
like a smart fellow to that extra-smart, “Chuna
mat lagao, mereko… Samje?”
Samje? Did you understand?
If I have to
believe that ‘fog’ is natural, when the clouds comedown to touch you and me,
and ‘smog’ is man-made, when the clouds from our chimneys, furnaces and motor gadies go up to kiss the skies… yes, if
I have to believe in this theory of fog-and-smog, let me, also, believe in the
theory, that, the lady who pointed out to me the difference between them is not smarter
than I am…
Or, the lady who
calls me Mister DeeeCHUNNNA is not dumber than I am!
Fog cleared?
GERALD D’CUNHA
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