[ This is Essay No. 38 in our Spotlight Series. Click here for the archives.]

All this hustle and bustle

by Usha

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As a nation we seem to have great tolerance for noise. It is silence that makes us uneasy. 25 years ago our neighbourhood was considered a suburban area and there were few houses and fewer vehicles. We saw a bus an hour. People who visited us from the heart of the city always commented on how quiet it was and they also said that it was a bit scary. Those were also the time when we could distinctly hear the rain fall, bird-cries and the rustle of leaves in the wind but they wanted man-made noises to feel comfortable.

We seem to need a minimum level of noise to feel secure. And if we want to celebrate, the noise levels go up. Any community celebration is flagged off with the arrival of the loud speaker and sound systems. Days before the festival the music begins to blare starting from the early hours of dawn well into midnight. It is the same with marriages too. The joy and celebration seem to be calibrated by the decibel levels at the occasion. As a nation we literally scream with joy.

We are so immune to noise levels that we don’t think it is rude to blare horns while driving or play loud music with the windows rolled down. I wonder if such people even consider it a public service – sharing their great music with fellow travelers on the road. I see people playing the radio on their mobile phones in trains and buses and even in parks while walking and no, they think it is too selfish to use the ear phones. In India we like to share everything – including our phone conversations – we shout into our phones in public places. Even hospitals are noisy here.

A French national on a visit to India developed some allergy and had to be hospitalised. She had to share the room with another lady who seemed in her sixties. I went to visit this girl during the visiting hours and was shocked at the level of activity in the room. The other lady had 3 visitors all of whom seemed to be speaking at the same time. The television was tuned to a serial and one of the visitors was updating the patient on the previous episode which she had missed. The French girl was in tears – she hadn’t been able to sleep at all which had made her allergy worse. So I went to the nurse’s station to request for a private room and the noise at the nurse’s station was unbelievable too.

And this was in one of the expensive private hospitals. One can imagine the state in government hospitals.

Personally I am not a great fan of crowds and high decibel levels and seek out places which are relatively quiet. Since we live in a big city out of economic necessity our choices are limited but then until a few years ago, it was always possible to find some noise-free hours - a few hours before dawn when there would be no vehicular traffic and people would still be in bed. Vehicular traffic would have thinned gradually around midnight and it would be some hours before the first travelers would hit the road. A five hour window to cleanse the system of the effects of the previous day’s noise-pollution and get it ready for another day’s assault. It was the only hours when light sleepers could hope to sleep without being rudely shaken awake by a horn of an auto or the loudspeaker from the temple nearby. A time when students could study undisturbed. A time when one could choose to quietly sit at the window and hear the wind on the trees or the birds announcing the arrival of dawn.

Of late I notice that this window is narrowing more and more and there is hardly an hour even in the night when the streets are noise-free. It doesn’t help that we live in an area that is a hub for call centers and IT companies. Round the clock vehicles ply ferrying employees in and out of call centers. And this is also the time trucks are allowed to pass through the city roads. With the shifting of the airport so far away, people with early flights start using the roads in the early hours. And these drivers have no hesitation about using the horns at any time of the night and an Indian driver has got to do what he’s got to do – honk.! Too bad if you can’t sleep. We are like this only.

I complained about the increase in noise levels in the city in recent years and my friend smiled and shrugged it off: “problem with all cities. Haven’t you heard the term ‘the hustle and bustle’ of city life?’ I have been in some of the large cities in other countries but their ‘hustle and bustle’ didn’t seem characterized by so much noise as here. It is just that our normal noise levels are so much higher than necessary that we seem to adapt easily to further increases in noise levels without complaining.

But there is a price to pay in terms of higher stress levels, increased blood pressure and loss of hearing. According to Wikipedia:

‘Noise health effects are both health and behavioural in nature. The unwanted sound is called noise. This unwanted sound can damage physiological and psychological health. Noise pollution can cause annoyance and aggression, hypertension, high stress levels, tinnitus, hearing loss, sleep disturbances, and other harmful effects.Furthermore, stress and hypertension are the leading causes to health problems, whereas tinnitus can lead to forgetfulness, severe depression and at times panic attacks.’

‘Chronic exposure to noise may cause noise-induced hearing loss. Older males exposed to significant occupational noise demonstrate significantly reduced hearing sensitivity than their non-exposed peers, though differences in hearing sensitivity decrease with time and the two groups are indistinguishable by age 79. A comparison of Maaban tribesmen who were insignificantly exposed to transportation or industrial noise, to a typical U.S. population showed that chronic exposure to moderately high levels of environmental noise contributes to hearing loss.’

‘High noise levels can contribute to cardiovascular effects and exposure to moderately high levels during a single eight hour period causes a statistical rise in blood pressure of five to ten points and an increase in stress and vasoconstriction leading to the increased blood pressure noted above as well as to increased incidence of coronary artery disease.’

WHO studies conclude that exposure for more than 8 hours to sound levels in excess of 85 dB is potentially hazardous to health. In most of the big cities in India the decibel levels are close to 90 and increasing. This is harmful not only for our hearing but the nervous and cardio-vascular systems too. Though we seem not to notice this, the effects are visible in the level of aggression, road rage , increased levels of stress and heart problems.

Apparently there are laws in this country too about the maximum levels of noise on the roads and use of loudspeakers. The trouble is that we have got so used to these noise levels that no one complains. All of us shout, all of us honk. It seems to have become a part of our cultural identity. Noisy Indians! My cousin tells me that this is how desis are viewed by the Americans – that we are too noisy. We are quite used to blaming ‘others’ for all our problems. Here is one issue where we can make a beginning by taking corrective steps – speak softly, have softer ringtones for our cellular phones or set them to vibration mode in public places, avoid using the horn more than necessary, reduce the volume of the television and radio even if it is inside our own houses, teach children not to scream. Have you noticed that when we lower our volume the others reduce theirs too?

I think it is also a good idea to teach ourselves and our children to appreciate the beauty and value of silence and quietness. Like the Bahai temple in New Delhi. You feel purified after a few minutes of silence inside the prayer hall. The pity is that most cities do not have areas still untouched by noise pollution. Perhaps the Himalayas? Like our ancestors, should we seek peace and silence in the Himalayas? But I would certainly not be surprised if we go all the way seeking silence and the first thing we hear is the loud ringtone of a few cellular phones! Haven’t you heard the threat:‘Wherever you go, our network follows.”

Let us stop turning a deaf ear ( pun intended) to all this unwanted noise that is adding stress to our lives. Or else we may one day end up being a nation of people with hearing defects.

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Usha blogs at Agelessbonding.