I quit
smoking on 17th September 2009. I want to share my
experience on giving up this habit. It is more than two and a half
year now and I have not smoked after this date. I can say now with
reasonable confidence that this habit would not come back.
I started
smoking in the end of 1987. I was in Class XI at that time. I do not
recall why I started smoking. Perhaps, I wanted to do something
different as I was in college now. In Bihar, XI and XII at that time
were in college. One night I purchased Regent Gold packet and smoked
for the first time. I smoked alone. First packet lasted for
approximately a month. I used to purchase one or two cigarettes and
smoke that in the dead of night. This gradually developed in full
fledged habit. I used to smoke Charms (it was cheap). It went up from
casual smoking to approximately ten a day.
After
finishing graduation, I came to Delhi to try for civil services. It
was a big preparation and cigarette was a must. It continued. Only
change was the change of brand. Now, I was smoking 'SELECT'.
'SELECT' was Delhi equivalent of 'Charms'. I got job. Brand changed
again, now I was smoking only Wills (Navy cut). The habit continued
but I started thinking of moderation. I started cutting on numbers. I
did one innovation. At that time, Navy cut was at Rs.1.60 and I was
smoking around six a day. I started smoking Classic. It was priced at
Rs.2.50 a day. I was smoking only two to four. It came down. But this
practice did not last long. I again came back to Wills. I got
married. I started feeling responsible. But this habit was difficult
to quit. I went on foreign postings to Jeddah and Bratislava. Smoking
remained. In foreign countries, I used to smoke Marlboro light.
Nothing else changed, except I made few serious attempts of quitting.
At one time, I did not smoke for a month and again went back to
smoking. But all along, I was a responsible smoker. During pregnancy
of my wife, I never smoked indoors. During Ramzan days in Jeddah, I
avoided public smoking. It was never more than 10-15 a day.
Once, I
linked savings on non smoking with school fee of my daughter to make
it a serious pledge. It remained for few months. But probably with
increase in salary, my expenditure on my daughter's school fee became
proportionately small. And I went back to smoking. Once I felt
hypocrisy in cigarette and doing yoga. I became a regular
practitioner of yoga. I used to devote around half an hour every day.
But I was smoking. I thought, I am fooling myself. If I quit smoking
the benefit of Yoga would automatically come. I quit the Yoga, ha
ha.... At another time I decided that I would smoke only at the time
of taking alcohol. Intake of Alcohol increased, ha ha.. I want to say
that quitting was never easy and I failed several times in past.
In 2009, I
was going to Patna with my parents. As I was always with members of
my family, I did not smoke for two days. I had cigarettes in my
pocket but could not get time/ place to smoke. I decided, I would not
smoke in future. I was able to quit. I was tremendously helped in
this effort by having a positive frame of mind, eager to live a
healthy life, drinking lot of water, doing yoga/ meditation. My
thinking at the time of doing Pranayam now was changed. I knew that
it is now benefiting me.
