SMOKER'S CURSE BY VIKAS THAKUR

 

 

SMOKERS CURSE

BY

VIKAS THAKUR

 

“Giving up smoking is the easiest thing in the world. I know because I have done it thousands of times”

I remembered this famous quote of Mark Twain as I watched a steady stream of people moving into a small cubicle christened – ‘Smoking Lounge’ opposite washrooms in the airport. It was akin to the irresistible pull of a candle flame for a moth. I wondered about the contrast with the victims of holocaust being pushed to gas chambers a century ago. Here, people were willingly entering the chamber. A Nazi from hundred year ago would be unable to hold a chuckle I thought!  All the horrible photo warnings on the pack of cigarettes had zilch effect on the guys. Even the prohibitive costs due to the exorbitant tax don’t deter smokers. There were no women going to the smoking lounge and that gave me a lot of solace as I had often heard of smoking making rapid inroads these days amongst the fairer sex too!

Tobacco was introduced by Portuguese in India during Akbar’s reign as a product with medicinal properties. Tobacco, due to nicotine in it, has a calming and sedative effect. Jahangir had recognized its addictive and harmful qualities and banned its consumption.  That way, he has the distinction of being the only ruler in history of India to banned it. Tobacco was smoked by the elite with hookah, medicants used chillum and the poor took to bidi. ‘Hookahburdar’ was the servant who carried the hookah for his master and present it duly lighted and filled with additives for aroma when demanded. Even British took up this custom with gusto and in earlier days of Raj, dinner parties of white moghuls in India ended with a hookah session after dinner where personal hookahs were provided by the respective hookahburdars and the flexible pipes or ‘snakes’ making way to the smoker in a serpentine fashion over each other! 

Cigarette smoke has more than 4000 toxic chemicals and 60 carcinogens. In India, 90 percent of lung cancer cases are due to smoking and smokers are 10 times more likely to suffer from cancer. Nicotine is 10 times more addictive than heroin. 38 percent of children under 5 years of age are exposed to second home smoke in home leading to permanent damage. Even fetus in the uterus suffer due to smoking in homes. With all these facts readily available to today's generation by various means, smoking as a habit is not showing any signs of ebbing.

We suffered smoking in public places quietly till 2003 when it was banned comprehensively by law. Till then, smoking even in public buses was common and compounded motion sickness of non smokers including children. One could complain against a smoker to the conductor but that option went up in smoke when the driver himself smoked! That was a signal for smokers to light up with abandon, cocking a snook to the fellow travelers. Thankfully it is a matter of past now. Only benefit of tobacco that comes to mind is the substantial tax income it generates for the government. Though it must be costing us much more in terms of cost to health, family and society.