Like the villagers of Champaner in the 2001 movie Laagan, residents of Delhi were left looking at the sky for rain. In the Aamir Khan-starrer, the residents of a parched Champaner in the1890s India started rejoicing after spotting a white cottony cloud. By the end of the song, Ghanan Ghanan, the cloud fleets away, leaving the people to the scheming Britishers and a cricket match.

As a Cessna plane from Kanpur took off and infused silver iodide and dry ice into clouds in Delhi , the residents looked up. The much-needed showers would give a breather from toxic air, they thought. However, like in the movie, there was no rain. Was this the Lagaan moment of Rekha Gupta's Delhi government?

Delhiites are gasping for breath in the post-Diwali smog, and experts warn that the worst is yet to c

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