Smokers' Curse

From colonial-era hookahs to today's airport smoking lounges, tobacco remains a powerful addiction. How history, indifference, and policy failures keep the habit alive in India.

- Vikas Thakur

As I watched a steady stream of people entering a small cubicle labeled 'Smoking Lounge' opposite the washrooms at the airport, Mark Twain's famous quote came to mind: "Giving up smoking is the easiest thing in the world. I know because I have done it thousands of times.

It was like the irresistible pull of a candle flame for a moth. I couldn't help but think of the victims of the Holocaust, pushed into gas chambers a century ago. Yet here, people were willingly entering their own chamber. A Nazi from a hundred years ago would have struggled to hold back a chuckle, I thought.

All the graphic warnings on cigarette packs seemed to have zilch effect on these men. Even the prohibitive costs, inflated by exorbitant taxes, failed to deter them.

I noticed no women heading toward the smoking lounge, which brought me some solace, having often heard that smoking is rapidly gaining ground among the fairer sex these days.