REDUCING YOU TO ASHES

 An Article I wrote for those who think SMOKING is cool.

‘A CIGARETTE IS AN OBJECT WITH A FLAME AT ONE END AND A FOOL AT THE OTHER END.’

I am a cigarette; Beedi to some. I get reduced to ashes when I am all fired up, and can reduce my victim to ashes too, though not that quickly. When I was created, my creator wrapped me up carefully to contain my insides. I was placed in a pack with other potential killers, stamped with the warning that I was “injurious to health”. But who cared? Those who grabbed us up with shaking fingers just needed to die anyway. Slow death; can’t see it so it doesn’t exist. Till the cancer came, and the pain. With it came regrets and sighs of “Its too late”. Some resigned themselves to their cruel fate by the silent killer, a few took courage to warn others. Yet they continue, those worthless works of the Creator, in defiance, with scorn and disregard, as if to say, “I am invincible. This won’t happen to me. I am God.”

My father and many of the men in my life smoked. I grew up surrounded by smoke in my home and everywhere else. (For us youngsters, puffing throwaway stubs was our stab at adulthood.) My Dad was a 2-pack-a-day smoker. His father puffed beedis. Dad’s brand was a strong one: I can still smell the pungency of his filters even though he’s been dead ages ago.. His lips were black with the constant huffing and puffing, followed by lazy smoke rings floating high up to the ceiling. 

“What does smoking do to the body?” I asked a specialist once. “How does it convert a sane human from macho to mush?” He told me that there are several ingredients that can contribute to the death warrant but the outstanding awards go to Tar and Nicotine. Tar! “Goodness Heavens! That’s what is used in road constructions, isn’t it?” I exclaimed. He smiled, sadly. How does tar and nicotine affect the body was my next query obviously. He did a whole lecture with me that day, which I grasped in essence. 

Tobacco smoke contains over 4,000 different chemicals. Tar is particulate matter drawn into lungs when you inhale on a lighted cigarette. Once inhaled, smoke condenses and about 70 % of the tar in the smoke is deposited in the smoker's lungs. That means if I get together a large band of smokers, our pot-holed roads could be asphalted in no time! Tar coats your lungs like soot in a chimney and causes cancer. Nicotine, which vies for first place with tar, is a powerful and fast-acting medical and non-medical poison. This is the chemical which causes addiction. Besides them, you have supporting roles played by Benzene and Formaldehyde (as carcinogens), Carbon monoxide in the role of the Aunt with Angst (this gas also features in car exhausts); junior villians like Arsenic (rat poison), Hydrogen cyanide (gas chamber poison) and Ammonia, the item girl (used for flavouring and releasing nicotine from tobacco) to name a few. All vicious vipers these, waiting to grasp the unsuspecting smoker in their tentacled vices, sorry, vises.

Well, that was enough for me to stay off the wretched stuff that tobacco is. My father-in-law died with brain clots, years after he had given up smoking because of a heart attack. My friend’s mother began smoking to keep her husband company. Now he’s no longer alive to hold her hand during her bouts of emphysema in ICUs. Heart attacks and strokes, lung cancer, fetal tobacco syndrome, these are free gifts given for a lifetime dedicated to smoking.

The Bible says, “Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit.” Ever seen a holy priest offer nicotine and tar as substitute for incense at the altar? Our bodies are precious in the Lord’s eyes; it houses His Spirit. So we must take the trouble to keep it free from filth.

The Cigarette says, “Keep the slow poison flowing through your veins till it reaches your brain. Then you will achieve final Nirvana- and I will have taken my revenge, REDUCING YOU TO ASHES.” (688 words)