We often think of having skin allergies as something that happens to a person naturally. A person can either have it by birth or not at all. But this could not be farther from the truth. In recent years, many people have started to develop skin diseases due to high levels of pollutants and allergens in the air around them. This trend has mostly been seen in cities that are highly congested and densely populated. I have been one of those people.
I never suffered from any kind of skin disease from the childhood days when we lived in our native home back in Kangra, Himachal Pradesh. I was a very active child, sweated profusely while playing, played outside in the sun for long hours and still never had any kind skin related issues.
We left our native place for better employment opportunities in the metro cities and started living in one such city. Early on, everything seemed cheerful and ‘happening’ as they say in the buzzing city life. The glimmer was attractive and we, like many others, were enjoying our time there. But after almost a decade, the city landscape started changing. Parks and open grounds were converted to residential or commercial housing and soon after we found ourselves living in a concrete jungle. As population density increased, the number of vehicles increased as well.
Breathing felt like ingesting something heinous through the respiratory tract. I contracted eczema soon after and things only went downhill from there. The pollutants in the air mixed together with the hot city temperatures presented the perfect conditions for such skin conditions to thrive. A couple of years later medications stopped having any effect at all. Things started to look grim. That is when COVID struck and we could see how the lockdown affected the air and thus my condition. Breathing felt easier. The temperatures cooled down by just a couple of degrees and even that had a great positive impact for people like me.
That is when I discussed with my family that I wanted to move back to the hills after my retirement in a couple of years as I knew that would help ease my situation. All of them were supportive and we settled at flats in Solan at Chester hills as our pick for our retirement home. It was the perfect combination of natural living with city-like amenities to make our time here convenient and fun. We moved just last year and my skin’s been thanking me ever since. I have recovered almost completely from my skin disease and that too without any medications. I can easily go out now for a walk without having to worry about contracting anything like that again.