Q for me has to be for Quitting. Not quitting in general but this is about how I quit smoking and I hope my example could encourage someone somewhere to do the same. This 2007 post in my blog, ‘People at Work & Play” proudly proclaimed that as on that date I had remained Quit for 1514 days. More than six years have gone by since then and I haven’t sat down to count how more days have been added to that score.
A few key dates remain engraved in my mind. The first is July 4, 2003 easy to remember because it is the day the United States got Independence and I got independence from the clutches of this addiction. I went to NIMHANS in Bangalore where I live, curious to know what would happen in a Smoking Cessation Clinic. At 2.00 p.m. that day, I smoked my last cigarette. The initial days were excruciating as I was attempting to kick off a deeply ingrained habit. I had, after all, smoked for more than 30 years and you can’t break free from such a strong addiction so easily.
I once again would like to express my gratitude to ” buddies” in QuitNet who encouraged me, just as I encouraged them. I don’t know how many of them have remained away from cigarettes. I hope at least some of them , like me, have managed to break away from thus habit which is known to cause so many health hazards.
In 2005 I had a heart attack and in 2010 underwent a coronary artery bypass surgery. I am fine now, under the circumstances, but I often think that things may have become far worse had I not stopped smoking that afternoon way back in 2003.
Prem Rao : Stories from a Story Teller 