'NOT STARTING IS WAY EASIER THAN QUITTING'

On World No Tobacco Day today, filmmaker Anubhav Sinha reflects on his journey as a non-smoker, celebrating five years of quitting smoking

- Anubhav Sinha

Smoking, when I was growing up, generally started at boyhood, when you are struggling to become a man. Cigarette advertising back then used to be associated with 'manhood'. Macho film stars or models with such an appearance would normally feature in cigarette ads. It was presented as a symbol of machismo and style. Of course, there was a statutory warning with it, but that's an age when warnings are read as challenges. The rebel in you is fledgling to break free. Little does one know at that age that nicotine is a highly addictive chemical substance. By the time you crossed over to some wisdom and were at peace with your adulthood, it was late. You were addicted.