Sixty kilometres. That's the distance 39-year-old Shanu John, commutes daily from Thane to his Nariman Point office. He leaves at 8 am, and is rarely home before 9 at night. His wife, Devina John, 34, commutes half the distance, but it's just as deplorable, she says. Yet, the couple won't move any closer to the city. In fact, after spending four-and-a-half years in an apartment right next to the Sanjay Gandhi National Park, near Thane West, the duo moved another four kilometres away, into a property where they have been "assured that no other construction is going to happen". "We have a nice view of the creek, and there are paddy fields right outside," says Shanu, a digital marketing professional. Their decision, though hard on them, is a prudent attempt to secure their five-year-old son, Ethan's future.

Before the couple became parents, they had, on several occasions, debated about the kind of "unsafe world" they would be leaving for their child. They eventually caved in to the obligations of a married couple, and Ethan was born. "But even in the last five years [since his birth], nothing has changed. In fact, it's only getting worse," adds Shanu. While the young parents are determined to work very hard to make life easy for their son, they are equally determined not to bring another child into a world that is staring at doomsday. "The system is creaking under the pressure. It's not just about having kids, but also wondering whether you have enough resources for them," says Shanu. "Devina and I have this conversation at least once a month, where we ask each other, what kind of world our son is going to find himself in. Frankly speaking, while we think that the world is stable, our system is very delicate, and it takes just one conflict for everything to collapse. Given the conflict that is starting for water and fuel, I think we will soon have to worry about where this is all heading," he says, despondently. Devina and Shanu are among the growing breed of Indian couples, who are consciously resisting social norms, because it's no longer environmentally conducive.