No Butts Please!
Human Beings are it seems a weird species. They create so much fuss about pollution, global warming and conservation of the environment but when it comes to themselves, They put some tobacco on a piece of paper, roll it, put it on fire at one end and exhale all the smoke coming out from the other and feel elated thinking that all this smoke inside their lungs will erase all their problems and worries.
Well, a very controversial issue to start with. But I have my reasons for doing that. There are several things I could have chosen to write about but this is one problem that I and hundreds of people across the globe like me who are averse to smoking face on a daily basis. Well definitely its the prerogative of the smoker to take a decision to smoke or not. But then the same applies for the non-smokers too. Why should they be subject to something against their will and inconvenience.
Though there is a government imposed ban on public smoking in our country and several others I still find a reluctance and ignorance on the part of most of the smokers to comply with that. There are so many times that I ask co-passengers to do away with their cigarette as I can't stand the smoke and moreover because its my right to choose whether to bear the brunt of their smoke or not.
One fine morning while commuting from home to office my co-passenger, probably in his early forties started lighting a cigarette and I requested him not to. Well he went forward to light it but as I insisted and the auto rickshaw driver too asked him the same, he grudgingly did away with it and told the driver that just because of him he had to waste a 6 Rs cigarette. Little did he realize that though he is worried about the 6 Rs. that he has lost, he hardly cares about the 11 minutes of his life that he loses every time he finishes smoking a cigarette.
Every cigarette you smoke is equal to minus 11 mins of your life. Say a person smokes 20 cigarettes in a day on an average in that case it would be 220 mins in a day which comes to approx 56 days in an year and around 3 years in 20 years. I am sure if I asked the smokers they would readily give up on that much life for the sake of the pleasure they seem to derive from it. But I wish it could be as simple an equation as it seems to be. If it only lessens your age for say a few years, maybe it could be acceptable. The repercussions of smoking are far more fatal. It not only lessens your age and leads to an untimely death but it also makes life and death both difficult and painful. It can cause cancer of the lung, throat, mouth, bladder, kidney, pancreas, cervix, stomach, heart disease and stroke, reduced blood circulation, respiratory infections such as pneumonia and chronic bronchitis, ulcers, impotence in men and infertility in women. If I continue listing all the possible diseases and risk factors I am sure this might end up looking like a medical journal.
It is not only the smokers who are susceptible to all these risks but also the other people who are exposed to involuntary smoking also termed as passive smoking. In fact There is no risk-free level of secondhand smoke exposure. The smokers not only risk their lives but also of their loved ones and people around them. And all this for the sake of temporary relief. I do agree that smoking relaxes the brain because of the substance nicotine in it. But seeking temporary relief can never be the solution to our problems. I don't think that smoking has ever solved anyone's problems rather it has contributed in aggravating them.
I don't expect the world to change after reading this. Because I know its easier said than done. In such matters I have seen only one thing which proves to be effective and that is sheer will power. But even if it leaves one smoker seriously thinking over it then it would be worthwhile. And if even one smoker quits smoking after reading this then possibly I couldn't have asked for more.
