My love affair with blue skies

Why Bangalore's skies are so blue and why they mean so much to me

This flash essay is part of a collaborative, constrained-writing challenge undertaken by some members of the Bangalore Substack Writers Group. Each of us examined the concept of ‘BANGALORE’ through our unique perspective, distilled into roughly 500 words. At the bottom of this snippet, you’ll find links to other essays by fellow writers.

There are a lot of things I love about Bangalore - the raintrees, the pink blossoms, Cubbon park, the lakes and of course the weather. But right on top of that list are Bangalore’s blue skies. Every time I come back to the city after a few days out and see the bright blue skies, I can’t help grinning widely. And of course capturing it, like this photo from 2 weeks back.

Why is the sky so blue in Bangalore?

How blue the sky looks depends on the temperature, altitude, humidity, and human impacts.

Poor air quality makes skies look less blue. When there is more particulate matter in the air, it affects the scattering of light that is responsible for the blue color and the sky doesn’t look so blue any more.

However, how blue the sky looks depends on factors as well, like altitude, temperature and humidity. Even with similar air quality, the sky will appear more blue in places that are at a higher altitude or have lower humidity and will appear more blue at the same place when it’s colder.

Bangalore is truly special. It’s one of the very few places in India that has a temperate climate. It’s temperature remains cool throughout the year. That along with its altitude (3000 ft above sea level) and low humidity give it the perfect recipe for its azure blue skies. Like the kind you saw in the Microsoft Windows wallpaper when we were kids.

To put it bluntly, Bangalore's blue skies are what they are not because of its people but despite them.

Why I love blue skies?

I’ve always loved blue skies.

But to be fair, like the Passenger song goes “you only miss the light when its burning low”, I truly started appreciating blue skies when they started disappearing from more and more places. Delhi has been the poster child of poor air quality and grey, dusty skies for long, but Mumbai (the city I was born in) still had the privilege of its famous ‘sea breeze’ that was literally and figuratively carrying it through. But that too changed. Over the last few years, once the monsoon is over, AQI in Mumbai has regularly crossed 200 and the sky has become a film of grey.

So, in November 2023 , I started a project '100 days of blue skies'. I posted a picture of blue skies on Twitter every day I could find blue skies with the caption 'Daily reminder to be grateful for blue skies'.

I finished the 100 day series in July last year. It’s got photos from a lot of places but the biggest share is Bangalore and I doubt I could have done this if I wasn’t living here.

This is what my ‘100 days of blue skies’ looked like. (Full album here)

Why we should talk about blue skies?

I spend my days thinking about how to talk to people about climate change and honestly, it’s difficult. No one wants to talk about climate change or air quality.

But everyone loves blue skies. I am yet to meet someone who doesn’t smile when greeted by blue skies. So it’s my favourite way to talk to people about what we have and what we stand to lose if we don’t act now.

I really hope we can preserve the blue skies in Bangalore and bring them back in other cities.

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Please read other essays from the collection here -

Looking Down over Bengaluru by Vaibhav Gupta, Thorough and Unkempt

Blossom Book House, Bangalore by Rahul Singh, Mehfil

A Walk, A Pause by Mihir Chate, Mihir Chate

Bookless in Bangalore by Vikram Chandrashekar Vikram’s Substack

Bangalore: A personal lore by Siddhesh Raut, Shana, Ded Shana

Bangalore,once by Avinash Shenoy, Off the walls

My love story with Bengaluru by Rakhi Anil

Bangalore Down the lane of History by Aryan Kavan Gowda, Wonderings of a Wanderer

Nagar Life by Nidhishree Venugopal, General in her Labyrinth

Belonging by Shruthi Iyer, Shruthi Iyer

The Street Teaches You by Karthik, Reading This World

The Wild Heart of Bangalore by Devayani Khare, Geosophy

Movie Dates, Bangalore and Them by Amit Charles, AC Notes

Between Cities by Richa Vadini Singh, Here’s What I Think

A Haven? Awake in Bangalore, by Lavina G, The Nexus Terrain

A City That Builds Belonging by Sathish Seshadri, Strategy & Sustainability

There and Back Again by Ayush, Ayush's Substack

A Love Letter to Bangalore by Priyanka Sacheti, A Home for Homeless Thoughts