In a recent survey conducted by Dr. Aditya Aserkar during a research programme at  the National Institute of Design, on mobility of people in crowded metropolitan cities such as Mumbai, he made a startling association of an individual’s height and the distance between his place of work and residence.

The commute which comprises of a major chunk of an individual’s time of the day influences his growth in a strong way. Dr. Aserkar in his study, relates this growth of a person in a fully packed Mumbai local train to that of the trees in a coniferous forest where each tree competes in height to become the tallest so as to get maximum sunlight.

 

A similar trend was observed in people wherein the further they stay from the place of work, the taller they get in search of air and sunlight.

In the survey, around 50 people were interviewed at each major railway stations in Mumbai. They were then categorized according to the place of residence and of work. It was found that people staying at Vasai, Virar, mostly males, were taller than their counterparts from Andheri to Bandra, on the Western Line, while those from Kalyan, Dombivali were found taller on the Central Line.

However, amongst each other, Western Line citizens were found to be taller than Central and Harbor Line. Studies even showed a rise in height of the residents of Dahanu, but after the introduction of a dedicated train, this trend seems to have decreased. Though they show phenomenal development in the muscles of the pelvic region due to the longer seating hours.

Dr. Aserkar believes this is an evolutionary trait found in humans that they have imbibed over the years. Connoisseur of Darwinism himself Dr. Aserkar on being questioned about this finding says, ‘Evolutionary traits, such as opposable thumbs, are bound to be occur in humans, which have developed over the years as the need develops. That has happened over hundreds of years, however, this instance shows a direct linkage of the person’s height and the duration of commute that has emerged within a span of only a decade.  This’, adds Dr. Aserkar, ‘is due to the drastic and sudden increase in population, and concentration of people in metro cities.’

Companies making height increasing products, supplements etc. have been set back by this discovery. Indians were never considered to be amongst the tallest nations of the world so the height increasing supplements had a tremendous market here.

But now with ever increasing space crunch Indians are finding their way skywards! Literally! Above all, Indians being workaholics and having virtually no money are settling on the far corners of Mumbai and other metros thereby travelling more. This in turn unknowingly acts as a height booster.

According to him, it will not be long before we humans start showing other such evolutionary traits which arise because of our commuting endeavors. Our hands will have a pouch for our cellphones and we will have a buzzer as soon as someone writes on our walls or messages us. Sleep will be gradually removed from the body requisite, caffeine will replace blood and will work just fine.