What's with the quality of the air today?

What's with the quality of the air today? There is a heavy smoky smell of soot all over Calcutta. Not that Calcutta isn't already polluted, but today the smell is especially bad. Want to know how bad it is? It is so bad that I think the smell of rubbish (like that huge pile of crap dumped beside my client's office) is better. My nose has now been seasoned to the corrupt, sweet smell of rotting rubbish, but I still haven't quite acquired a taste for heavily polluted air yet. After spending half an hour in a non-air conditioned cab, it sure feels like I have just smoked 20 cigarettes. I'm sure if one were to take the PSI readings, I dare bet it would've been no lesser than 150. The air quality today is so bad that Hong Kong's air would seem like pure oxygen. No way I'm going to get out of the hotel today.