Saturday, July 07, 2007

Care for a smoke?


Belonging to a Sikh household, among my peers I was the one who detested smoking most I think; probably because since none of our acquaintances smoked, I never had to face anyone smoking except strangers at railway stations, bus stops, and such other public places(where actually smoking is banned). I hated the smell and used to get furious at the forced passive smoking, so in such situations, I always made it a point to give a huge glare to the culprit. I had this notion that anyone who smoked was either a rich spoilt brat or a poor addict; whoever it was, always managed to induce a dislike in me for them and their weakness, hence the glare.

But gradually things changed. I moved on to college, where almost every 4th person smokes. No one considers it a big deal anymore. In fact in dram practices, we have had cigarette breaks at 4 in the night for people who are not able to work without their standard puff. I found all this weird in the beginning but gradually accepted that people do smoke, and that too without any sense of guilt which I (as a kid) thought they would have.

I really respect people who stay away from this slow poisoning habit or who have quit it; that shows a will power which is admirable. Though I don’t give angry glares to people who smoke anymore (now I even have good friends who unfortunately smoke), I still continue to detest the habit. Or maybe I just fail to understand the reasons for smoking. All I can see is that probably something which started as an experiment went on to become a habit, and then supposedly a tension reliever to which they got addicted. For a non-smoker, it is difficult to comprehend why killing yourself slowly is such a fad. People who smoke and by chance happen to come onto this blog , please do enlighten me.

Anyways, the reason I started thinking all this recently was because I happened to come across a good idea I wanted to put up. On cigarette packets in India we have a statutory warning “smoking is injurious to health”. On my recent holiday to Singapore, I saw that on their cigarette packets, along with the same statutory warning, they have images which show what smoking does to you. The images(spoilt teeth, tongue, disfigured neck) are quite gross and I think they may be able to remove the glamour part (which I think lot of people associate smoking with) from cigarette packets. Maybe this would at least encourage beginners to stay away from this poison. I don’t know whom to suggest the idea to, so just putting it up here; so that it may circulate, and maybe, reach the right head so we can have something like this in India too.

On a lighter note, couldn't resist putting these up..

“People always come up to me and say that my smoking is bothering them... Well, it's killing me!”


“I tried to stop smoking cigarettes by telling myself I just didn't want to smoke, but I didn't believe myself”


“I'm not really a heavy smoker any more. I only get through two lighters a day now.”


“smoking is one of the leading causes of statistics.”



18 comments:

Nimit said...

nice post :) more than will i have seen it is the body of the smoker dependent on smoke . A friend of mine who is interning with me smokes a lot . I talked to him and he decided to give up smoke but he got sick because he had not smoked for one day .. and then he had to take it for his body .. he had the will . The government should actually organize centers where people can give up smoking . My friends who smoke know it is bad for them but they are dependent . also the notification is on cigarette packs only ... not on beedi ... why? thy are made in defence ministers constituency ..

Anonymous said...

Well, some1 said "Smoking kills you slowly", and "I am in no hurry to die :)" !!!!

And I dont believe any person who says that I tried to quit smoking, ahhh but my body needs it....thats a bullshit....u can quit it netime you want it...coz me personally have done it for long phases of arnd 2-3 months atleast twice....but just started it bak, coz I like it...

and I can challenge ne1 that I can leave it neday I want :)

Gurveen Bedi said...

@nimit:i dunno re..there are ways u can giv it up..gradually..atleast tats wat iv read at a number of places..if u really wanna giv up tho..but pata nahi..personal experience nahi, so cant be sure..
@anonymous:may i ask y do u like it?

yash said...

i want to ask why the hell is anyone bothered about anybody else' health. I mean if i smoke its my own discretion;its my health-how does it matters to you?

and de facto,chemicals used to ripen vegetables are even more toxic than tobacco,they may even lead to genetic disorders,so one should stop eating??exhaust from thermal power station,oil refinery ,asbestos industries is sheer venom, so people should stop working in those industries??

Gurveen Bedi said...

@yash:u need vegetables to survive..u need a job to survide..u dnt need ciggies to survie..
and as for bothering about oders' health..if i want to care about da world, my wish..i just think tat this will help reduce da glamor part from ciggies nd prevent dose ppl frm taking it up who take it up to impress da world, tryin to be fakely cool..
and even if i dnt care about anyone's health, i can always bother about a habit tat annoys me..ciggies are as annoyin to me as biting nails is to sum people..so i care about people stopping smoking also because i dont like being a passive smoker..
to each one his own i guess..coz as always we dont agree nd i guess wont agree:D

Ravali said...

well...i never liked smoking earlier too....thought it was sum kinds bad habit ...actually it is still considered by sum though :D
try watching thank u for smoking....its jus like wht ppl smoke say ...or do to support their habits....jus crap..no valid reason to do it...relieves mind...tensionless....blah blah bullshit....
u cud try a chewing gum...tht relieves tension equally...and i also read sumwhr earlier....tht sex is an equally stress buster.. so those who cud replace smoking to having sex...why not do it ??
and as for my passion of trying everything once...i tried smoking too...and i really wonder wht thrill it gives to ppl...coz all it gave me was a choked breathe and cough...
though i shud confess tht sumtimes when i see the supposed "dudes" smoking i kind of find it cool myself :D
well again i leave it upto those smokers to decide for themselves wht to do..and giving up smoking is not easy but its neither impossible...my dad was a chain smoker...gave up smoking aftr my mom protested...started off again in between and gave u again becoz of mom....well..if my dad cud do it...i dnt think its impossile ...coz i didnt see him "suffer" as ppl keep saying :)

Ravali said...

and winnie...try removing anonymous commenting on ur blog...mite help :)

$udhi said...

yaaaaaaaaakkkkkkkkk
those pics are really disgusting
thank god they are not imported in India :P
well, i dont know what to say actually,...
its neither important nor a casual thing for me...
hmmm, actually i dont care or think about it...
this is what came to my mind after reading your blog
sochna hai kya?
jo hona hai hoga
chal pade hai fikr yaar dhuve mein udake!!!
jane kya hoga.....

hmmm,... i still dont want to seriously think about it, let alone talk about it to my friends...
so one hardly sees me smoking

~$udhi :)

saint nothing! said...

haha.. indeed a very common topic.. cigarettes.. and the very same old outcry! :) Demand for a smoke free environ n what not! well... personally speaking, even i smoke a lot and I do it coz i like it... coz i am used to liking it.. if u ask me why i like it, I will just have to ask ya why u like something sweet or teekha for that matter.. its like 'who is john galt?' from atlas shrugged ! U cant quite give an answer! :)
neways.. ya.. putting up pictures were considered even in india once I believe.. but I , again personally, believe that it wud hardly make any difference!
neways.... keep posting.. cheers! :)

saint nothing! said...

and i just cudn't pass without commenting on a comment u received.. :D
@ ravali... : cigs as stress buster is ofcourse crap medically.. but ya.. psychologically many ppl actually find smoking a bit of a relaxin technique.. and indeed.. hehe.. sex as stress buster.. of course.. where does one get a packet of ten sex opportunities for 40 bucks dear? :P.. besides, considering the frustrated state in which most of our "morally bound" young ppl are, not having sex is one of the primary frustrations i believe! :P
neways... bwaa.. thats it.. :)

Amit Charles said...

'Kill what kills you'.
Liked your suggestion about puttin the pics of the after effects. But in a country where a simple sticker of Danger symbol (Skull with two bones crossed) on Beedi packs were opposed bcos many lives (i.e. the employees and their families) are dependent on this income. Do you think this would really work?
Besides, I believe its got to do with will power.

Gurveen Bedi said...

@saint nothing:but finally the question "who is john galt" was anwered in da book write and tat too declared to the whole world?:D:D

@scribbler:i dint knw it was opposed..waise agreed about da will power..but i still think this wud help too..

saint nothing! said...

hehehe.. got me there.. :P
but blaa.. thats all u saw in ma comment? :P

Anonymous said...

whatevr it is about smoking...a strange thing happened to me...when i was just goin thru the replies at the blogs...mere winamp mein "maaro suttah" gaana chalu ho gaya :P :P 'a hauted post it seems :)'

-- same anonymous :D!!

Gurveen Bedi said...

@saint nothing!:hehehehe
@anonymous:it feels so gud to know d anonymous for a change:D

Tuhina Adit Maark said...

the reason people keep going back to smoke is because of the addictive nature of cigarrettes. that is exactly the job of nicotine. apparantly it gives people some kind of high and they just cannot do without it.

recently i put a post on my blog (partly inspired by this post) telling how there are 600 ingredients that make up a cigarette. i was under a false impression that those who smoke didn't know about these 600 chemicals.

and finally i don't understand what is so wrong with what people call "bothering". :D

Gurveen Bedi said...

@nclgirl:ya i guess quite a lot of the people who smoke do know about wat harm it is doing to dem..but dunno y it still doesnt make any difference..
and i also dont see da problem wid bothering:D:D

Vikash said...

I left it. thanx to you. :)