DELHI SMOG - A LAMENT

I often tell folks, "Give me a situation and I will give you an appropriate song". So the other day, playing golf in the Delhi smog, I wondered, is there a song to describe this? And the brain flashed, "Killing Me Softly"!

50 years ago in 1973, Roberta Flack recorded this beautiful number which hit the number one spot in USA and many other countries and won her two Grammys. With apologies to her, I give you this adaptation and take comfort in thinking that if Roberta had experienced the Delhi smog, she might have thought on similar lines-

Stuffing my lungs with its vapours

Throttling my throat with its fumes

Killing me softly with its smog

Killing me softly with its smog

Clouding my whole life with its fog

Killing me softly with its smog

I felt all choked with hacking

Embarrassed by its strength

I felt it blocked my nostrils

And gagged my normal breath

I prayed that it would end 

But it just kept right on

Stuffing my lungs with its vapours

Throttling my throat with its fumes

Killing me softly with its smog

Killing me softly with its smog

Clouding my whole life with its fog

Killing me softly with its smog

It felt as if I would choke

In all my dark despair

But the murk kept thickening

For it I wasn't there

My eyes were teary and bleary

But it just kept right on

Stuffing my lungs with its vapours

Throttling my throat with its fumes

Killing me softly with its smog

Killing me softly with its smog

Clouding my whole life with its fog

Killing me softly with its smog