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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