He wants to play. She needs to walk. But the air quality decides otherwise

Afternoons should belong to football fields, or at least society parks. The hours between school break and sitting down for homework are the most coveted of the day – downtime with friends and showing off that Ronaldo dribble or the Kohli straight drive.These last few weeks, Jai Sharma has been doing all this but on his phone, hopping, skipping and jumping webpages and chat windows and getting his sports fix from videos rather than kicking that football around the park. The park that he has on days strained to see through the smog from the balcony of his ninth-floor apartment in Noida. In the 15-year-old's life, playgrounds have been replaced by screens, not by choice but out of necessity, with schools prohibiting outdoors because of hazardous air quality in Delhi-NCR and parents preferring children to remain indoors with air purifiers running in the house, rather put their lungs through the strain of smog. Jai and his parents moved to Noida from the US in 2015. "He was an energetic child who rarely stayed indoors. He was always running around. Skating, football and outdoor games filled his evenings," his mother Sruti Sharma says. "We never imagined that something as basic as air would one day stop him from stepping outside."The family chose a higher-floor apartment, hoping it would at least spare them from the continuous assault of street-level dust since landscaping is still not a concept here. It didn't. As pollution worsened, the flat's doors and windows began to remain more closed than open and air purifiers became a necessity as Jai developed a persistent cough accompanied by asthma, symptoms that intensified every winter.A boy who was perfectly fit 10 years ago today has recurring bouts of cough and breathlessness and is heavily dependent on medicines."By the time he was 13, his condition had deteriorated enough for doctors to prescribe nebulisers, inhalers and steroid medication. At his worst, Jai needed nebulisation six or seven times a day," Sruti says. "There were days when he had to use nebulisers in the morning, afternoon, evening and night. It is frightening to see a child struggle for breath," she adds.Pollution has also disrupted Jai's education. Frequent absences due to breathing distress and medical visits made it hard to keep pace at school. "When you miss classes often, you're always catching up," Sruti says. But it is football and skating that Jai misses the most. "I see other kids going down to play, but I know I can't risk it, especially in winter," he says. Jai has responded by finding a voice in environmental activism. "People see pollution as just numbers on an app. But for me, it took away my childhood."Exercise, but where?While Jai needs to manage his health by staying indoors, Priyanka Jha can only manage hers by going outdoors. The 52-year-old schoolteacher lives in another end of NCR, in Gurgaon Sector 72, but is a victim of the same airshed.Every morning at 4.30, Priyanka wakes up not to beat traffic, but to manage pain. She was diagnosed with arthritis last Dec. Her doctor advised her to take daily walks, at least for 30 minutes, to slow joint stiffness. But pollution has made stepping outside difficult, especially in that hour when the smog hangs heavy. Pollution, according to doctors, has also been triggering arthritis flareups. "On most days, I simply can't go out," she says. "Pollution makes it impossible because I start coughing almost immediately."This winter, her allergic cough has worsened, affecting her voice and ability to teach. "I have to speak for hours in class. When you're constantly coughing, it's exhausting. Arthritis adds another layer of physical strain, especially on days when I cannot move enough," she says.Unable to follow medical advice fully, Priyanka has adapted indoors. Early mornings are spent on light strength training, yoga and stretching. Walking, once prescribed as therapy, has been replaced by controlled movements inside the house. "I try to compensate," she says. "But it's not the same."Her main physical activity now happens at school, where she walks as much as she can between classrooms. Pain management continues throughout the day — hot water, pressure massages, careful movements. But the toll is not just physical. "When your body is constantly in pain, everything feels heavier. It affects your mood, your patience, how you speak to people," she says.Priyanka and her husband have discussed leaving Gurgaon during peak pollution months, possibly spending winters in Pune. But work makes that difficult. "I'm a full-time teacher. I can't just leave," she says.For her, pollution dictates how much she can move, how freely she can breathe, and how much control she has over her own body. "I want to walk. But on some days, the air decides for me whether I can," she says.