Whenever I travel by the public transport of Mumbai – the local trains and BEST buses, I long for open space. Many times I have let two to three trains pass by before boarding into one which is less crowded with some fresh breathing space. And not only that, even the roads are extremely crowded. Mumbai is a true representation of how crowded our earth can get.

I hail from Delhi and I have spent my childhood playing in big green parks which dot almost every residential colony in that city. In the 90s when I was in school I have done cycling through the empty streets of Chittaranjan Park, Greater Kailash, Alaknanda and Jahanpanah City Forest. My childhood buddy Rajorshi and I would spend the entire summer holidays cycling every early morning. Not withstanding the temptation another wonderful buddy of mine, Amlan joined our group in his old rusty milkman-type cycle. And, it was fun. Those days the fastest car you could see on the road was Maruti 1000. We would gasp in lungful of fresh oxygen after a cycle race.

A few days ago I was reading an article in the newspaper which mentioned two big satellites crashing in space. One of the satellites was a Russian defunct satellite Cosmos 2251, which was orbiting aimlessly since it had gone non-functional. The other satellite, an American one called Iridium which transmitted telecom signals to millions of customers in the US. Scientists claim this as the first high speed impact accident occuring in space between two man-made satellites. A certain section of the scientists also warn of the growing debris which lies in the extra gravitational zone of earth. Several NASA scientists are talking of Space Traffic Regulations so that such incidents don’t occur in future since even a speck of debris, measuring only 0.33 mm , resulting from this accident could endanger a space shuttle carrying astronauts and travelling at 5000 kms per hour. As per latest figures by Space Security Index there are billions of man-made debris orbiting in space aimlessly since they can no more be controlled from earth.

So, such times have come where we human beings haven’t spared even the vast extra-terrestrial space which is invisible to so many. Blaming Mumbai or for that matter any bustling city for the lack of space seems like a mockery in front of the bigger picture the future holds for us.