Hoogar’s parenls proved to him that smoking was hazardous before everyone else did. They threatened to beat him if he smoked. Hoogar didn’tsmoke until he was 15. Smoking was fun It was grown up, chic, and everybody did it. Sure he had heard that 3,00,000 Indians die prematurely from the effects of smoking. But that didn’t apply to him. He wasn’t hooked. He could quit anytime. Or so he thought.
After three years and 21,900 cigarettes later, he learned how wrong he was. He came to realize this only after a few experiences changed my mind.
Once, he had quit for three days. On the third night he sat down in front of the TV set and turned on “Don.” There was SRK, flaunting a puff on his cigarette. There he was sneaking out of his house to buy cigarettes. Finding a store open at 12:30 in the morning is a neat trick, but Manipal has its hidden pleasures.
Another bit of frenzy was when his pack of cigarettes dumped in his pockets. He couldn’t find a whole cigaret anywhere. He finally had to resort to putting two broken cigarets together and smoking them.
The “last straw ” came when he was on the highway to Mangalore. He had just finished a cigaret and tossed it out the window. Five minutes pass and he began to wonder what that funny smell is. He looked in his rear view mirror and saw smoke coming from his back seat. Two of his favorite sweaters were going up in smoke. His cigaret had blown back into his car.
He almost killed himsel trying to get to the side of the road to put it out. “My friends had always said that smoking was going to kill me but I had no idea that I was going to die like this. T decided to cut down at first and then gradually quit. But I found this doesn’t work.” says Hoogar.
The Hoogar came across a pamplet on “How To Stop Smoking,” It said,
‘. . the best way to quit smoking is to stop all at once . . . slow torture is no fun “
After trying to cut down and then going back to smoking. Hoogar decided to quit “cold turkey. ” It was hard at first becausehe didn’t have a plan to go by.
A friend of his suggested a simple plan that will stop a smoker’s craving in five days.
1. Do anything that will keep your hands busy Doodle, read, work crossword puzzles
2 Keep your mouth busy. Eating dielitic candy or chewing sugarless gum so as not to gain weight.
3. Take relaxing hot baths.
4. Drink 6-8 glasses of water a day.
5. Eat well balanced meals.
Hoogar has been smoke free for an year now.
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