Kick the butt on world no tobacco day

WORLD NO TOBACCO DAY: A cigarette is perhaps the only consumer product which kills its consumer.

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New Delhi: Everybody knows smoking kills but that doesn't stop millions from lighting up day after day. Quit smoking is easier said than done, but on World No Tobbaco Day there are some positive reinforcements for people who would like to kick the butt. Here is the story of a reformed smoker, software engineer Vibhor Rastogi.

He says that he was 14 when he had his first cigarette.

"We were walking back home from school and my friend offered me one. I hated it, but I felt grown up. And at that time I naively thought that I could never get hooked. But by the time I was 17, I was smoking a pack a day," he recalls.

Vibhor would wake up with a smoke, smoke a second within an hour and then a third just to get the day started.

"My flat mates did not know about my addiction. They tolerated me smoking two-three cigarettes a day, but the whole time I would just sneak out to light a smoke. I missed family functions and didn't go back home for years, all because I didn't want my addiction to be discovered," says he.

Smoking can be an alienating addiction. According to the World Health Organisation, 82 per cent of chain smokers find their social circles shrinking.

Senior Psychologist at Escorts, Bhawana Barmi says, "A number of smokers have almost brought an end to relationships with their spouses because of smoking. Because of smoking, divorces are on the increase."

Vibhor finally made the biggest decision of his life — to quit smoking. But to him, it was not just a social issue.

Mark Twain once said that : "A cigarette is perhaps the only consumer product which kills its consumer." This is an important lesson to be learnt by the 280 million smokers of India — quit before it's too late.

Of course sticking with your decision can be tough and physically, the craving will not stop for two weeks.

Withdrawal symptoms can include nausea, cold sweats, headaches and even a feeling of emptiness. But like Vibhor, who is now on his thirteenth smoke free day, everyone else can do it.