Today, noise is no longer merely pollution. It is harassment.  

From blaring loudspeakers at religious events to morning walkers playing music on their phones; from irreverent honking to loud videos on trains, we are surrounded by people who think it is their right to make noise and everyone else’s obligation to endure it.

The most aggravating offenders, however, are passengers who conduct telephone conversations on speaker mode or play Instagram reels at full volume in closed spaces.  

Nothing raises the blood pressure quite like being involuntarily introduced to a stranger’s family disputes, business deals and poor taste in Insta reels.  

Indian Railways has begun addressing this nuisance through warnings and penalties for passengers who disturb others with loud audio or phone calls.  

Under the applicable railway rules, persistent nuisance can attract fines and other consequences. First time Rs. 1,000, second time Rs. 5,000 and even jail time!

The Railways has also stated that normal phone calls can be taken, but one has to speak softly and, for the rest, use earphones. One hopes that the threat of a penalty succeeds where common courtesy has failed.

If not, we may have to turn to Bengaluru-based techie Pankaj Tanwar, who has developed an app that records surrounding audio and plays it back with a two-second delay at the same volume.  

The offender gets to hear their own noise echoed back at them. No argument, no confrontation, just a little taste of their own medicine.  

Sometimes, the best way to make people understand the nuisance they create is to let them experience it themselves.

In India, of all the pollutants plaguing our cities, noise is perhaps the one we embrace most enthusiastically. We honk, beep, blare and turn on our speaker-phones on trains. But we Indians are conditioned for noise from a very young age.  

Beep! Beep! Watch children playing driver. They weave through imaginary traffic while making ear-splitting horn sounds. These impressionable minds have already learnt one of urban India’s most obvious irritants: The honking menace and it gets normalised.  

These kids have concluded that driving is not merely about reaching a destination but also about announcing your presence every few seconds. Sadly, some never grow out of honking.

Perhaps we have grown so accustomed to noise that we no longer recognise it as an intrusion.  

We humans begin conditioning ourselves to unnecessary sounds from infancy: Bells and rattles over a baby’s crib, followed by the exaggerated cooing, clucking and vocal gymnastics adults perform to attract an infant’s attention.

And then there is the parental hiss: “Sssss… Sssss…” used to persuade a toddler to do susu, pee.

Today, we wake up to alarms and fall asleep to Instagram reels. We listen to something while driving, walking, shopping, exercising, travelling in lifts and even in urinals.

Some of us even need background music for the most routine bodily functions. Hotel washrooms provide soothing music, presumably to help gentlemen relax.

A few may imagine themselves Zubin Mehta conducting an orchestra. The baton, in this case, is simply being held at a different angle.

But the real offenders are those who believe public spaces are extensions of their private living rooms.

I once encountered a gentleman on Chamundi Hill during an early-morning walk. At 5.30 am, when the birds were providing a perfectly adequate soundtrack, he was blasting a song from his mobile phone.

I politely requested him to lower the volume. His response was remarkable: the noise would keep ‘chirathe’ (leopards) away and I would be wise to stick with him, he said!

He continued playing the famous ‘Prema- loka’ movie number, “Hello, my lovely lady, who are you… whooo are you?”

I had an answer ready: “Definitely not an inconsiderate noisy idiot like you.”

But discretion prevailed. I walked faster, leaving the gentleman and his musical leopard repellent behind.

Humans are remarkably noisy creatures. We talk when we have something to say and talk much more when we have nothing of significance to say.  

Animals, on the other hand, seem to manage perfectly well without this constant vocal exhibitionism.

They communicate when necessary. We seem to communicate simply to prove that we exist.

Perhaps we love noise, because we fear silence and we fear silence because it makes us introspect, which can be unsettling.  

Maybe more than gym and yoga, we need silence. Because when you are silent, you listen… listen to your conscience.

And conscience is what makes us human…  It’s what makes us humane. One has to agree, we live in a time where we desperately need some decibel detoxing.

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