To Control or Not to Control

It’s tough to be in control. More than anything else, it’s tougher to not to control someone. While anti-conversionists in Orissa re-convert tribals back to Hinduism forcefully and pro-lifers still try to control the decision a young mother must make, controlling someone else’s life is easier than staying in control. But if there’s one control ban that almost everyone clapped for, it’s the new smoking law. While friends and newspapers are peppered with discussions on the new smoking law, here I am contemplating whether I must support it or not. The kind of person I am I hardly tell people what to do. There are certain rights and wrongs in my head for me exclusively depending on my upbringing, values and likes, but to tell someone not to be alien to me. My close friends yes, I tell them shamelessly because it’s MY friends. But others, well live and let live. But for the first time Ramadoss hit it jackpot say smokers as well as anti-smokers. With this new law that bans smoking in public places, it’s easier to quit it says a close friend. Others we know at work actually walk all the way to the street and the two-pack dwindles down to a mere one pack out of sheer laziness. Staircases are no more pilgrimages of cigarette philosophies and all you see now is empty pathways and cleaner air for all the others who don’t smoke. The one thing I have against smoking is the fact that it’s not really live and let live. You smoking is not only harmful to you but to the other person right next to you, so it makes sense I guess. I myself have done it, one due to peer pressure plus boyfriend influence and two, because it calmed me down and made me feel stylish and chic. Yes, I admit I was all about the show at one point but it never stayed with me. I tried and failed numerous times till I gave up, and now boy, am I thankful. Everyday I see one person around me cribbing about how they cannot quit. And while some others I know crib about this ban, I say smoke darling, in your home and let everyone around you live. A colleague from work has done some research, says that smoking kills more people a year than drinking. She has tried quitting but hasn’t quite succeeded. And research also says that a daily average of five cigarettes will reduce 14.5 years of one’s life. And while a junior smoker complains about the ban, she firmly reiterates that junior is new to smoking and soon, after she’s seasoned, she’ll be dying to quit and by then it’s too late. I’ve heard more smokers give this gyan than any lay person. Yes, not all who smoke have cancer and not all who die of cancer smoked. But what’s important is that – we tried to reduce a big cause. Smoking they say increases anxiety, depression, risks of cataract, premature wrinkling and ageing and smoking even one or two a day can cause cancer of the throat, bladder, lung etc. And tobacco they say is the leading cause of preventable death responsible for 5.4 million deaths every year according to the WHO. And I am advocating it shamelessly to everyone who asks my opinion instead of saying “Can’t really say” and being overtly diplomatic. And what more can I say? This time, control is what makes life easier and the air a tad breathable.

Today’s fare: Nothing says being in control than these red knee high boots from Victoria's Secret. There’s always something about boots and red ones at that.