Spare Us The Smoke, Please!

For those who expect me to ramble on with the many disadvantages of smoking, and healing for the perpetual smoker, can eat their hearts out. This article is meant for the welfare of the more normal, saner, less suicidal individuals of society this time, for I believe there is no healing for the lost souls. They wouldn’t listen to reason, good for them, but it’s time to consider the danger they pose to their counterparts. And no, I do not intend to propose an anti-smoker-nazi project of eliminating every tar-blowing nostril and mouth. No, sir. Just a few reasonable ideas about the dilemma faced by millions of health conscious people around the world, threatened by yet another lethal pollutant, and of course, a little bubble-bursting for the smokers.

Alright, so everybody knows smoking causes lung cancer, coronary diseases, liver damage, bad breadth, yellow teeth, ugly gums, and hampers sperm production. Incidentally, all these true but oft- repeated facts are paid heed to and memorized by non-smokers more than smokers, which is why you find me so well-informed. The culprits, are too engrossed in deluding themselves that (1) all their problems are being solved by killing themselves...which might actually be true but not a healthy approach of course; (2) smoking strenthens their image as a sex-god/diva; (3) Smoking stimulates their mind/sex organs; (4) confusing the cigarette as equivalent in addictiveness to cocaine/heroine and hence, themselves as incapable of leaving. Smoking, by the way, is not physically addictive at all. Its addiction is about as strong as that of tea or cola. This Psychological addiction can be cured without having to resort to extreme measures; ever cured yourself of chewing too much gum? That’s how hard is quitting smoking for a normal individual with normal willpower. Contrary to popular opinion, you are not likely to suffer body pains, daylight hullucinations, and consequently a tragic death during quitting period. As for the earlier misconceptions with a capital mis, smoking is more likely in today’s world to strenthen your image as a self-inflicting idiot rather than a sex symbol radiating sophistication; it’s time to abandon the fifties’ concepts buddy, it’s way past that age. Also, as I was dutifully informed by an in-process-of-quitting smoker, the stimulant trait of nicotine is overshadowed by all that tar that is so gladly consumed. The cigarette is, hence, merely bad smelling carbon more than anything. It does not make you a better problem-solver, and definetely doesn’t revive your potency.

So that out of the way, lets come to the major point of this article here. Everytime I go out, in a restaurant with no non-smoking zones, or a bus, or even university, I have to face attack...deliberate and painful as any other...by the insensitive and ignorant smoker public. Ignorance and insensitivity in fact, seem to be common traits of most of the smokers around here, who would continue to blow smoke in your face whatever you do to dissuade them. In the end, you just have to walk away, and if you can’t, well too bad. Stay and endure. According to authentified medical research second-hand smoke is actually just as bad as inhaling from a cigarette pressed between your own lips. It doesn’t matter if you aren’t the one smoking, if you’re in the vicinity, you’re facing all the ills you thought you had avoided by not taking it up yourself. And henceforth, every fine day, all of us with smokers in their immediate surroundings for an hour or two, perform the act of smoking as good as smokers themselves! So it would be just as well to take up smoking yourself...you’re doing it anyway....a few cigarettes here and there. If you have to be killed by smoke that didn’t even come from your own cigarette, better do it on your own and obtain all those mindless, orgasmic pleasures smokers claim to obtain then, too!

Sarcasm aside, non-smokers seriously need to start realizing their right to health and safety, and their right to tell off anyone who threatens it just because of a few moments of his/her own pleasure. It’s a pity that our media continues with advertisements of tobacco when most of the remaining world has long done away with promotion of such an outrageously harmful product. But even in public places, and most horrifyingly, in many places of education such as universities people including students and teachers smoke openly and in each others’ faces, actually encouraging young, impressionable others to take up the habit. In many reputed universities of Karachi, smoking is permitted in cafeterias and grounds by administrations. In a local arts graduate school, it’s hard to see through clouds of smoke in the cafeteria during lunch breaks. In my own university, many students actually develop the smoking habit after having had their firsts shared with other smoking friends here.

An absurd, idiotic misconception is associated in teenagers about the ’image’ that goes along with smoking. And the funniest explanations are given to deny this image factor by smokers to save face, ranging from the amazing anti-depressant abilities of the cigarette to the unparallel comradeship it shares with them in times of loneliness and so on. I think, that if the only person who understands you in the world in times of distress is a cigarette stick, you need some serious social therapy buddy.
The blatant truth is, that anything that becomes a psychological addiction, be it tea, coffee, coke, mint gum, or tobacco, tends to be conceived by the human mind as a rev-up tool, when it is indeed, nothing more than a problem. A big, fat, over-abused problem.

Except for a couple of restaurants, smoking isn’t even formally prohibited in public places. In some, at least, there are non-smoking zones, in others, there is no concept even of showing some concern for the larger bulk of families who don’t need lethal smoke to pollute their lungs on an outing. The fact that most retaurants have no regard for a majority of their customers’ health and well-being,being the main source of recreation for most public on weekends, is just as bad. But of course, the major blame lies on the smokers themselves, who usually have no regard for people, be it complaining parents or spouses, smoke- allergic friends, or even young children who rapidly learn what they see their elders doing. This merely shows the lack of social-consciousness in our society. Increased awareness about the ills of smoking has led bans on public smoking in most developed countries, and the least smokers themselves do in those societies is ask for permission before they light a cigarette in social situations. Here, well, be it weddings or birthday parties or a formal dinner; who needs a permission, it’s a free world!
I actually once experienced the same line from a junior at university; a teenaged habitual smoker. He was outraged at some fellow students coming to him and advising him against smoking, considering it a breach of his personal rights. Also, a breach of the freedom that ’we have obtained after all that struggle...this is what freedom is...freedom to do whatever we want’. Obviously, the explanation left me a little flabbergasted, on the twisted version of the struggled-for freedom in the kid’s mind. Personal freedom I agree with, only that personal freedom is freedom to act for your own self unless you are not breaching anyone else’s personal freedom, and I believe a genuine refusal of any individual to take in your smoke does count as his/her personal freedom. You are of course entitled to choose an activity for yourself, and perform it as long as it doesn’t start to involve the others. If one is bent upon destructing his own health, fine, but that really doesn’t allow doing the same to other people. The same goes for this free country and its free inhabitants. Freedom is one thing, respecting others’ freedom is even more important. That’s what education instils into you doesn’t it? That’s why you’re endowed with that working, amazing mind, to think and make intelligent choices, and make yourself a productive, not destructive individual of society.

That’s all that there is to say...I rest my case.