HOW I QUIT SMOKING

From school days at the age of around 10/12 I took a fancy to smoke and now and then used to smoke a cigarette just for fun along with other students when we went to beach to take a dip skipping classes. It was a daring adult like act, very macho then.

Around 17 after finishing highschool I took up a job and started earning on my own. My first cigarette was Chesterfield, an extra length cigarette, costing 2.5 annas (Around 1955 it was probably equal to 15p when my salary per day worked out to just Rs.2/-! As I went up from job to job, salary also increased and by the age of 25 I was a regular smoker. It started with about a pack of 10 and went on increasing.

At the height of my smoking, I was a chain smoker, smoking out 2 to 3 packs of 25 king size Wills! My day started with lighting it up and ended with dropping a lighted cigarette on the floor while I went to sleep. Did I enjoy smoking? This question was addressed to me by a elderly fellow passenger in train journey. Both of us were alone in the first class compartment and I went on smoking while reading some book. I replied to him quite frankly: No, I do not get any joy out of it. But if I do not smoke, I feel like missing something, become uneasy and am unable to concentrate till I light up.

I loved my wife beyond limits and knew how horrible she should be feeling whenever I kissed her. One day I told her to ask me not to smoke. “If you ask me, you know, I will certainly stop smoking. I will do anything for you, don’t you know?” She said, “Yes, I know. But think, if you do not stop smoking even after my asking you to do, what will be the worth of my words? You know it is harmful. So decide by yourself.”

Then I started thinking seriously about stopping smoking. First I quit it when I felt horrible smoking; that was whenever I had severe cold! I was able to stop it for about 4 days! That is all. This went on for a couple of months. Then I became more determined and planned against me! First I decided about a fixed date beyond which I will not smoke, come what may. Secondly I started telling everybody I knew friends, relatives, colleagues and anybody I met that I was going to stop smoking from that particular date which was about 3 to 4 weeks away. I did this because I had a great reputation that I was a man of my word. I used to keep my words many a time at a great cost to me in time, money and misery! I knew therefore that I will not let my reputation spoiled at any cost.

The second thing I did was to calculate the number of days available for smoking and reducing the number of cigarettes I smoked per day by 2 or 3 everyday. I calculated the exact number of cigarettes I should reduce everyday so that on the appointed day I should be smoking not more than 2 or 3.  My plan was I may not be able to stop it in one go because it had become an entrenched habit and I should be able to get out of it gradually. Keeping a target of more than three weeks will be meaningless and will only indicate my helplessness. Keeping just a week also will not work, because the severe grip smoking had on me. To give strength to my resolve I used to take out the exact number of cigarettes to be smoked every day from the carton and keep it separate. I never increased or decreased the number to assure myself that I was a man of my own words!

Meanwhile I kept telling everyone about the progress I was making. There was always some polite questions as follow up and I replied elaborately to everyone, fortifying my own resolve. Some used to ask me even before I would start telling them about it, which only made me feel I should not let their confidence in me go down the drain! During the course of these ‘vrat’ I also started a new habit of cleaning up my glass ashtray after every cigarette was extinguished! It was a psychological play on myself. I hated getting up and cleaning it and by doing so, I wished I could stop smoking so that I did not have t do it!

The last day was a celebration. I continued with the announcements to anybody within hearing of the number of cigarettes left before I would stop. First such announcements did not make any difference to me or to the listeners. To me because the reduction was so gradual. To others I was far from stopping and many believed I will not be able to stop the habit which had even badly stained my fingers, besides being the cause for several of my teeth falling and resulting in my having to wear partial dentures! But during the last four days even others were very interested in the count down and encouraged me to keep it up. I also felt more and more confident that I could do it.

That was a joyous day! I kept my word to my wife. I did not make my parents and other elders feeling uneasy and embarrassed when they found me with a lighted cigarette in my hand. My self confidence took a big leap!

In the following days I got my appetite back. For about the last three years of heavy smoking I was looking after a factory and was so immersed in my work, I drank several cups of coffee and smoked cigarettes and ate NOTHING except dinner at night. I got back by sense of taste and smell. I changed the curtains, pillow covers, bed sheets, everything. What a stink they were creating! I scolded my wife why she did not complain to me about the stink I was creating in the house! I had a small signboard on my table in office: “Thank You For Not Smoking!”

For about a year I was a hero. Everywhere people talked about my will power. I was a shining example for many others who told me they would also follow in my foot steps. I do not recall now how many or if any at all could stop smoking.

The habit of about 35 years ended when I was about 53. That is when I had a serious heart attack and was hospitalized in ICCU for more than 2 months! The Cardiologist told me one of arteries was totally blocked, another 50% and the third about 30-35%! Besides I also had aneurism in my heart near the joint of main artery, which balloons up and contracts every time my heart pumps! Jokingly he told the only good thing that came out of my smoking was I will have a sudden death when the balloon bursts. I should, therefore, never strain my heart even a little. I should not lift anything heavy, not run even if it to catch a flight!

I am now 78. In good health. Happy and do not smoke!