How I Kicked Off Smoking
Ten years ago I couldn’t believe that I would ever give up smoking. Now I look back with amusement why I smoked at all. It’s a question that applies to other addictions as well. In my case two incidents influenced my decision. They led to a realization that helped me to kick off this bad habit as spontaneously as a snake casts off its slough.
For good many years I suffered from chronic cough and cold at least four to five times a year. This took away at least as many weeks from my working days. Cold being infectious, it also affected those around me. I stopped smoking not to aggravate my cough. For a few days I felt no compulsion to smoke.
But I resumed my old habit possibly because my friends and colleagues were mostly smokers. Like cold smoking is also contagious: you feel restless when you see other smoke. So I realized that smoking is associated with socializing and looking smart and manly.
The second incident is remarkable and more decisive. My elder brother developed cardiac problem and was treated of Dr.Kar, an eminent cardiologist at a Govt. hospital in Calcutta. The doctor was so strict that he made his patients swear never to smoke in life. I found an interesting sticker on the rear windscreen of his car: ‘Don’t wait for heart attack to give up smoking’! It was a kind of epiphany: the message could not be better worded. I made up my mind and quit smoking.
But old habit dies hard. So I smoked casually at social gathering now and then. But as nicotine went in, I felt an urge to smoke again. I realized that it’s the nicotine (often in excess over the permissible limit) that compels us to smoke more and more. We talk about relief from stress and tension of life. But the momentary relaxation is often followed by more mental stress and confusion.
Some cite examples of Churchill and Russell to prove that smoking helps to think and write better. But I was not convinced. I knew a lot of women scholars and professors who never needed the narcotic stimulation. Now my family and I are happy with my decision. I no longer have the chronic cough and cold. The effect was so good that my son became a non-smoker.
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Dt.22.07.2006
