Dust

Flee fly flow phlegm is the grumble in every corner of my office these days. Tissues are brought to noses like clockwork. Most women blow quietly and guiltily, most men... Well, with men things happen in the throat rather than the nose, it seems. Unfortunately there's no part of my respiratory tract which doesn't grigger and fritch, so I snort, croak and wheeze. Much worse when people smoke in our enclosed room. Bad also when Delhi has its dust days -- the air goes brown and the car is hard to pick out against all the construction rubble by the end of the day. I almost expect to see camels swirling down with the dust.

Is it a worthwhile business proposition to collect dust and use it for insulation material? After all, there is, improbably, a material called 'rock wool', and it's used for insulation. There's big money in it. Delhi gets millions of tons of dust from Rajasthan every year -- free, like the air transport. Can money be made off something that nobody wants?