Comedian Vir Das compared Mumbai’s air quality to smoking cigarettes in an Instagram post. Fans, especially from Delhi, responded humorously.
Vir Das calls out Mumbai’s worsening air quality.
Comedian-actor Vir Das has a unique way of reacting to things. Sometimes it’s a straight post, other times, it’s laden with sarcasm. His Saturday post stands just in the middle. Vir, on Instagram, complained about Mumbai’s air quality, comparing it to smoking cigarettes.
“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 Marlboro Light,” Vir posted.
Fans of the actor immediately took to the comment box and replied on his post. Interestingly, a majority of the comedian’s Delhi fans were the first ones to reply, leaving the funniest of reactions. They dropped comments such as “I live in delhi, it rained yesterday so we are esse lights at the moment, usually we are marlboro advance”, “Delhi aao”, “Mine was Marlboro Red, harsher and unfiltered. Guess the city?”, “Yesterday Delhi was Marlboro Red”.
Sonam Kapoor, too, echoed Vir’s thoughts on Mumbai’s air quality, and reshared his post on her Instagram story. In December, the Go Goa Gone actor had shared a similar post on Instagram. Take a look:
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.”
The actor 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, our country was ranked third among the most polluted countries in the world. It’s time swifter and more effective measures are imposed to curtail air pollution in the country.
