WHY DOES ONE SMOKE

At the start of a day, after a meal and at night in solitude one reaches for that white stick, lit at one end with the “fool” at the other end. The stick has something, whether magical or just plain tobacco, is for each one to decide.

You start it seeing your friend or your larger than life senior do it. The first puff actually nauseates you, makes you cough and spit the smoke out of your mouth. It actually feels horrible at first. But surely, there must be something stronger to persist in this than just peer pressure or admiration. It is the inner rebel in us which makes us pick up the stick. The good, studious guy wants to show the world he isn’t just that, the kid with overbearing parents gets to do something over which his parents don’t have control, the guy who is frustrated with the farcical ‘good’ values around or the guy who wants to be part of the ‘bad’ crowd. It makes people get to know each other much faster, even if in a superficial way. The sense of freedom can’t be described by mere words.

There are some who don’t smoke but drink. The reason they give is that drinking isn’t that harmful to health. But you just need to see the amount and frequency with which they drink to know that the reason is a farce. They too let out their inner rebels. It is just that they rebel against smoking too. No big deal.

Doctors say that we lose 14 minutes of our life with each fag. But, who, actually cares? God knows how many ’14 minutes’ we have lost seeing Roadies, movies and all the crap. The number of years wasted in having farfetched fantasies and ways to achieve it is beyond anybody’s guess. Moreover many feel it is an insult to human mind and intelligence that a few mgs of a chemical is able control their life. Thus the oft listened comment from most smokers-“I’ll stop when I want to”. Personally, I think you can stop smoking when you wish to, coz, as they say it’s all in your mind.

Just to sit with a fag, not moving, not really thinking about anything in the world, not really caring about anything, drawing out the inner tensions and frustrations that have prevented you from solving problems you couldn’t solve before and introduced clumsiness and stupidity into your thoughts and actions.

Does one need any other reason to smoke?

P.S.: To all those who smoke,
STOP IT, seriously, it spoils your health. :P