Love Thy Smoker!!
With this blog post ,i would like to introduce Malvika Parmar, as a guest author on this blog. Malvika happens to be a old school friend, whom i met after 6 years courtesy Social Networking . Since i have only 1000 Mb of space left on this blog, i shall register a new blog to introduce the epical stories of Malvika.
I am a person of very peculiar and sometimes strange likes and dislikes, and I guess the latter outnumbers the former. So I thought that since this is my first post, let me just pick something on which I have plenty to talk about-the ‘dislikes’. Sounds contrary to the title? Well, I don’t blame the readers! But seriously, I am going to discuss one serious ‘dislike’ of mine.
I often come across people saying, “I hate smokers”. And this is exactly what I seriously, positively DISLIKE. I really fail to understand the logic behind it. Let me dissect the statement now, in an effort to understand the deeper meaning hidden within the spaces. To hate “smokers” means hating people who smoke (we are not talking diesel buses here for god’s sake). I don’t as often hear people saying, “I hate nose diggers” or “I hate men peeing on the pavement” as much as “I hate smokers”.
If you are so against smoking why don’t you say “I hate Marlboro” or “I hate cigarette lighters”? That would really be more logical. Its insane to hate someone for a habit that only goes to harm him. And yes this reminds me of the good old rationale of ‘passive smoking’ which people often come up with as a defence to their hatred. To all those people who think passive smoking of cigarettes would kill them, honey, the vehicular pollution affects you much more adversely. So you can start saying “I hate automobiles”!
I can understand if someone says that he/she hates the habit of smoking, like Mahatma Gandhi said, “hate crime and not the criminal”. Just imagine you have a very dear friend who you have known for a very long time and share a great bond with. Will you start hating him if he starts smoking? Will he suddenly be a less of a friend or a lesser being? He would undoubtedly hold similar importance and significance in your life. In fact you might just become a lot more caring for his lungs. I fell in love with a person who smokes and that really changed nothing, just like it wouldn’t have mattered if he snored while sleeping.
People, smoking is just another habit and I urge you not to judge a person’s character by a single habit. It pains me to think that people who lie, cheat, deceive, bitch and backstab their own friends get more respect just because the don’t possess any of the so called “anti-social” habits.
I am not a chain smoker. I smoke like ten cigarettes annually, but some of my dearest friends smoke on a regular basis. And whenever they are subjected to this social bias just because of one habit and others ignore any talent or the kindness they possess, it hurts me to be a part of such morally blind society.
This article was a result of a long argument with another friend of mine who apparently “hated” smokers. I managed to change his stance to an extent and thus I decided to write this article with the hope of changing a few more ‘opinions’.
So as they say, in spite of all the inhibitions and doubts, “love thy neighbour”, we can also follow another modern ‘sister saying’ “Love Thy Smoker”
