Stop smoking now
Smoking is bad. Smoking is injurious to our health. Smoking causes cancer. Who doesn’t know this? But how many do actually follow? There is a rising trend among youngsters to fall into this hideous, malignant habit which corrodes their lung to the direst of being. Every single day as I return from college, I see roads hustling and bustling with college going students, adorning and deserving a bright future for themselves.
But as my eyes move away from their well-combed hairstyle, expensive designer clothes to their hands, I see tobacco rolled in paper, puffing out rings of smoke slowing desecrating the life of the consumer as it vanishes into the thin air. Suddenly it strikes me how profound a danger is their lives in, cut short by every cigarette they smoke. Smoking is banned in public places and so is urinating but has any law implemented and followed in India strictly? Never. Passive smoking is as harmful as active smoking. But no one cares or points out to the smoker to lit out his/her cigarette. Adversely affecting one’s central nervous system, respiratory system, cardiovascular system, digestive system, reproductive system and integumentary system, there is no safe way to smoking.
There is a common misconception that only men smoke while women do not. However, this is simply preposterous because stupidity doesn’t choose a gender and women love playing with their health as much as men do. Women smokers experience more complications of pregnancy, including miscarriage, problems with the placenta and premature delivery.
Some time ago while going through the pages of a medical journal, I came across a story which appealed to me a lot. It was the story of a young man who had suffered a massive heart attack and went to see the doctor whom he asked if he could just have ‘one’ cigarette every day. It so happened that the stress was consuming him and smoking seemed like a ray of hope to combat the suffering. Preposterous but common. The doctor was against the whole idea but couldn’t force his views on his patient. He simply smiled and asked,” Will it remain one?” During the start, all smokers are sure-footed of how they will be successful in limiting the amount of consumption. But slowly and slowly the urge magnifies and engulfs the consumer with itself. Sad but true.
Substituting smoking with a cigar, pipe or hookah are just puerile and utterly stupid steps with no benefit whatsoever. To quote John Lennon, “Life is what happens to you when you are busy making other plans.” Life is unpredictable and often throws curve balls on our paths. Stress is an integral part of this journey. But this doesn’t mean that one should turn to cigarettes for some composure which in the end does nothing other than destroying the resourceful human body. I just want to put two questions to all the smokers. Will you still smoke if what happened to your inside happened to your outside? Will you still smoke if your face corroded simultaneously with the corrosion of your lungs?
-Yashika Kant
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