The white wall stands in striking contrast to the otherwise vibrant cluster of cafes in Champa Gali, Said-ul-Ajaib
New Delhi: Surrounded by cafes in bustling Said-ul-Ajaib in south Delhi, the wall with a mural on it is unmissable. It’s a reminder of the poison the city breathes daily. Curious onlookers take selfies with the mural, which reads, “Six hundred air conditioners on a cloudy day, a flight to Mumbai to watch the last game before the summer break, forty test drives on the latest sedan, a glass factory on a Sunday, and twenty-four thousand cigarettes is all that went into making this mural. Made from the soot in the air that you breathe every day.”
In May 2023, contemporary artist Kunel Gaur was approached to create a mural with a message on an impending problem of Delhi – air pollution. The white wall stands in striking contrast to the otherwise vibrant cluster of cafes in Champa Gali, Said-ul-Ajaib. It took Gaur and five others 15 days to conceptualise and execute it.
“The ink we have used was supplied by Air Ink, an organisation that collects soot from air pollution and turns it into ink,” Gaur told HT. Air Ink claims to have their “proprietary technology to sequester PM 2.5 and PM 10 emissions.” The website states that with the help of third-party accredited labs, they analyse and further segregate the pollution particulate for recycling.
For Gaur, the aim was simple – accountability of governments, agencies, and individuals. “The work depicts the grave impact of the simplest of activities,” Gaur said.
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For 29-year-old Shraddha Kaur, who was at a cafe nearby, the mural caught her eye for “artistic impression of pollution in Delhi,” while for Chandan, who was at another cafe, the work has helped him quit smoking. “I came across this mural in December 2023, and when I read the line, ‘…and twenty-four thousand cigarettes is all that went into making this mural,’ it really hit me. I questioned my choice and quit smoking a few months later,” Said Chandan.
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