Spare Us!

With the courage gained from the warm welcome for my earlier post, here I am with my another post from my personal blog space called mind's whisper (elsewhere) posted on June 2008. It is, in fact, my first post in my blogging history...Though my life had changed since then, but my memory of those days are still lingering...

No offense meant to anyone...

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When I get out of WTC (World trade Centre) station every morning, there is only one thought that hover over my mind. It is dreadful. :hide: It is neither the long day’s work that awaits me at Wall Street nor the 15-minutes strenuous walk to my office in hot & cold weather. Then what is it? It is the fact that I might have to smoke involuntarily for half the time on my way;

Courtesy - Second Hand Smoking (SHS).

There could be big signage on the revolving doors of those tall buildings saying, "No Smoking in front of the building". People might still stand next to that door smoking. If you a take a longer diversion near those doors, you could avoid them to some extent, not in its entirety. Okay, a simple solution. But what can we do about the "mainstream" smoker who walks with you on the pathway? In the morning rush, it is difficult to overtake everyone to bypass that person. Still I could have tried hard and geared up my next 10 steps only to stand next to another ‘smoking’ pedestrian. Sometimes, I can slow down a bit to let him go, but I might end up irritating the person following me :bonk. The paseo in the evening is less crowded as people go home at different times; apparently I draw in lesser smoke than I do in the morning. Or so I presume. :rotfl

I had even encountered people who would take a puff straight on my face, which eventually would have made me cough continuously. :drowning To be courteous, many times I had avoided my temptation to close my nose with hands, thinking that it might hurt the smoker. :crazy

There are many studies conducted to support the carcinogenicity of passive smoking and their findings on its effects could vary from mild infections to heard disease, lung cancer, asthma, etc; though there are controversies over few studies claiming that those are overemphasizing the results which are unproved, it is beyond doubt that passive smoking is harmful. It could adversely affect tiny tots and elderly on both short and long term. There are numerous smoking bans at specified places and locations. It doesn’t prevent you completely from being a victim of SHS.

I can take Subway to Wall Street avoiding it, but I consider the long walk as a good exercise and I prefer it. Moreover, it is not the only place where I am forced to inhale the toxic substance. At the dawn of spring season, I was glad to see the flowers to bloom. Whenever I see green and grassy lands, I feel like doing "Bhastrika Pranayam" in the open air (A deep breathing exercise). Before I start, to my dismay somebody would have polluted the air and I would tell myself "it is better to hold my breath here, forget about deep breathing".

In the hospitals whenever the nurse asks me, "Do you smoke?" I will be reluctant to answer in the negative. Thanks to my mates on the street, I smoke a minimum of 2 to 3 Cigars everyday, of course passively, and without a spending a single penny! :biglaugh

Spare us, please !

 

Rema,
Thanks for posting the first FB. That is very generous of you to say so. Your humor, on your posts,is too good. Keep going.

- LOV

 

mg: holding breath for 2 blocks? ennala avlo 'dhum' pidikka mudiyadhu (I can't hold it for so long) :spin

Thanks for the appreciation, Meena.

 

thanks Aruna...
Hmmm... (a big sigh)

it is not just 1 or 2 person smoking in the morning crowd to financial district. it is impossible to hold the breath for 20-long minutes and we literally have no room to get away from them also.. so cannot help it

 

Thanks Chaitusri. Agreed, one set of people is trying to increase the life span and another set trying to reverse it