The first time I quit

I got a wife and two kids.That`s enough reason for me to smoke.In fact, that`s the only thing i look forward to first thing in the morning, my ciggy it is.I need something legally opiative to tolerate the constant nagging and whining that every man has to abide with when he gets married and has children.And, i do mean EVERY man.There are no exceptions.Some men may be delusional and think they have wonderful lives after marriage.I understand.

ozer,

umm, why all these conditions all of a sudden?
i thought i was getting a free ticket to london. no questions asked. that is the only way that i work.

can my boyfriend join us on all these fun things u have planned? he`s a writer so he will really enjoy the poetry by the fire.

:)


burpinder: so sweet. i am trying all of those. it helps. i wish that with tasting bad the cigarette wouldnt feel so good. i hate how clam it makes me and I KNOW that it is just mental...psychological. its the dirty nasty nicotine monster. aghhh!

z.rizvi

I am surprised the author even made it through that first day.

There are some ways to stop smoking- marrying or going out with someone who has lost a close one to cancer tops the list. Your urges cannot compete with that kind of guilt.

Also, if you somehow convince yourself that you don`t actually like to smoke, it helps. Get aggressive with your close friends who smoke, tell them statistics prove that passive smoking kills their wives and children, especially unborn ones. Scold them for smoking too much- yaar earlier you used to smoke control mein, nowadyas toh you are really freaking out STOPPIT.

Cut out all people and situations in your life that make you smoke. Some situations like meeting old friends over drinks, are mandatory smoking situations, you cannot avoid it, on such days tell yourself, I will start only when the urge is unbearable. I will smoke at most one cigarette with one drink. I will take a puff and extinguish the cigarette.

Everyone hates smokers nowadays, same category as (#19) suicide bombers and lepers. Tell yourself you do not want to be labelled a smoker. Clean breath and no morning phlegm are powerful motivators.

If you stop for a few days, it will get easier to stay quit. But if you succumb to the urge and smoke a little, forget about it. It is done. Every cig unsmoked is good.

Ref#31
I agree with you that reading the book is pain in the neck. But I went to Easyway clinic in melbourne. The deal is that they charge $240 for a 4 hr session and guarntee that you will stop smoking.

The clinic was very helpfull. Infact 4 of my friends have also stopped smoking after going to the clinic.

All the best. But don`t cheat your self. If you want go ahead and smoke that way you will escape old age. While healthy people will be lying in hospitals and dying of nothing

Ozer,

The Thames doesn`t have a sunset as its always cloudy here!

Galloise are sh*t, Silk Cut are the best, Marlboro Lights are too rough compared to SC. Khair, i too am quiting again, i quite last year for six months done with the help of patches. The only problems i had were the psychological ones (which i have loads of anyways), other than that it was nice to smell fresh and clean all the time, but i got sick of eating green Extra chewing gum all day, and i did start to eat a lot more, friends commented on how `healthy` i looked! It was nice not smoking, after a while you forget you even did, meal times are the worst but even that becomes ok after a bit.

I stupidly started back when i went to work for my old boss, and in that company there is a big smoke break/drink culture, now i`m starting a new job, i want to go in as a `non-smoker` so i don`t get drawn into the smoke break culture!!!

Dekhyeay ki bunda

Anyways good luck to all those who are quitting

KH

Zehra

Forget Boston, a ticket to London can be arranged snappy snaps....but before venturing to do so:

a. will you smoke the cigar I have on offer ?
b. will you sail into the sunset of the river thames with me?
c. will you venture to try the global culinary trials that i shall prepare for you?
d. will we shelter next to a fireplace and read the finest poetry on offer ?

RSVP

Merci beaucoup

Le Gaulois Blonde

...Speakest thou with a veil of humility,
Is this thy real face?
Or be it another scurrilous scruple?
...This thwart thing betwixt us twain,
That nothing sedates!

`Haya!` Ever heard of the phrase in urdu and persian?

And for the most intellectual editors of this website! Well ofcourse they are going to let you write anythign you want, this ofcourse is the most egalitarian website for intellectuals, isn`t it?

atif2. u so funny. u actually are. i laugh at ur posts.
i dont like boston. been there once and yeah, not a big fan. not sue what everyone keeps raving about. everyone is white with an occasional speckle of color. give me NYC anyday...everyday. so if u have anything besides boston to offer...
is that all it takes for u to be intersted in a woman. suppose im a big fat ole cow wih warts (oh wait, do have those), and boils (dont have those yet).

arstoo. i am on day 14 of quitting with occcasional cheating thrown in but still day 14. i read allen carrs book and i had to suspend my intelligence to read the book since i did want to stop. it reads like an infomercial but he has his reasons and they are pretty good. did u ever re read the book?

(do cigars count as ciggies? want one when i come home with some whiskey..mm mm).

z.rizvi.

Dear Zehra,

Please just stop here. Stopping smoking is not a big deal if you realy wan`t to stop smoking. What you have to ensure is that you find smoking switch in your sub-concious and switch it off. It is that easy. What you are doing in this your allowing your concious brain to rationalise your smoking behaviour and hence the difficulties of giving up.

I am talking from personal experience, I use to smoke 50 cigs a day. Stop on a fine morning 8 years ago after reading a book by Allan Carr called `Easy way to stop somoking`. After taht never looked back.

You don`t need will power. You don`t strong determination. Nothing. That is exaclty what you need if you wan`t to stop smoking. NOTHING. So called withdrawal syndrome it is nothing but the effect of mild flu. You can take a paracetamol if you feel too bad.

I would like all the smokers to stop smoking, if you realy want to. If you enjoy it keep smoking.

Good Luck all

Zehra - first of all, a warm and wet hello :) (yeah, its been raining in Boston). Secondly, after reading a few of your articles on chowk in the last few months, here is what I have gathered about you so far:

1. you are an avid smoker. god knows, watching a pretty olive complexioned girl chomping on a fat cohiba is one of the sexiest sight.

2. you once had sex with someone. and so you wrote a poem, longing for the ``back ache`` that sex session gave you. that was heart wrenching and brought tears to my eyes. it was awesome!

3. you laid bare on your kitchen table, while your mom - a doctor, examined you for warts.

4. you asked your dad for birth control pill prescription, since your mom was out of town.

Well, after knowing all this about you, I am sitting here wondering....where have you been all my life?!! Hi, I am Atif :)

BTW - summer in Boston is really pretty - hint hint! ;)

dear adroit,

what is so offensive about the first line? (line ends with a `.` so are u sure u did not read more than just the first line?)...

i am actually a humanitarian aid worker. i rarely, if ever call myself a writer. i know too many writers to really do that in good conscience.

i love constructive criticism and yours is not. to make it so you would have to give me reasons as to why you didnt like a certain aspect of my writing rather than just calling it ********. i actually have no problems with the way u trash my writing either since u are entitled to ur opinion. luckily the chowk editors feel differently. it is always the case.

were u SO offended that u felt u had to let me know and interact? i mean, that is quite a powerful reaction then that i illicited from u. how nice.

ozer, a ticket would be nice.


z.rizvi.

I stopped reading all this hogwash after the first line!
Woman! could you be more pathetic? I mean what r you trying to prove with all this **** that comes out of you? Do you really think its useful?
And the `intellectuals` of this website- all boasting the medals they have achieved so far or disturbed freaks- read all of this? Well if they do then i pitty them.
But ofcourse you wouldn`t mind a critique of this sort now, would you? Since you are a `free` and an established writer-how lovely when ppl call u a writer or with other brilliant names ;P
Goodluck with the anonymous ride of peasants!
Regards,
not-quite-Adroit!

Re: # 25

Nicotine-addled friends opine that Allen Carr`s “The easy way to stop smoking” is something of a magnum opus. After several cracks at quitting, Mr Carr`s willpower steers his 4 by 4 wheels toward hypnosis. Et voila he hits the jackpot ! Not a ciggie jab in his mouth ever since. Must have surely been an easy-on-the eye hypnotherapist ! Pitty his opus does not expound much on the hypnotherapy technique.

Telling a compulsive 14th day smoker that it`s easy to stop is voluntary suicide. Especially when there lurks a bias in you to trans-atlantically invite them for ``les Galuoise Blondes``.

Back to the topic, Carr is not preaching, he is empowering. The pivotal mission of the book is to help deal with the psychology of smoking. He compares commencing on tobacco with putting on a pair of shoes that are too tight just to feel the pleasure of taking them off again.

This forms the mainstay of his `Easyway` method - in other words, smoking is a David Blaine like illusion and when the illusion dissipates into thin air stopping smoking becomes “easy”.

So Zehra:

What will it take apart from ``Gauloises Blondes`` to fly you over to Her Majesty`s beloved 007 territory ?

hahaha, this is all too funny.
to answer the question did i quit. the first time i tried to quit, these first 12 hours ive written about, was like, 2 years back.
i am on day 13 of quitting. it is a process since i have been cheating but i feel like this is as good as it gets for now and i need to stop feeding the nicotine monster. it is a basic drug addiction and i dont feel like being a druggie.

ozer...dont even start. i am so badly wanting to come to london. u have no idea.

anyone got tips to stop smoking? anyone heard of allen carr and his book, the easy way to stop smoking?

z.rizvi

Zehra

Nothing inspires me more than a soul-searching lady batter-dipped in smoke inclined towards pseudo “multi-culti” conversation. Though I relinquished the tension-easing libido-inducing convention of burning a pack of my lungs a day, I now ebb towards the occasional cigar. Manufacturing my 2am delight.

We are talking Castro’s finest: Cohiba`s Havana’s and Davidoff’s ranked on the top echelons. I somehow remain morbidly drawn to mocha-coloured Mademoiselles who pledge allegiance to ciggies and poetry.

The fires from their lighters clench me into ecstatic imagery. Even though I do acquiesce that immoderate nicotine incline provokes a restrictive hall-way culminating in the left ventricle.

Here in London nicotine is still a law of introductory presage between the genders. A proverbial breaking of the ice between initiated guyz and galz. Ciggies reign supreme in my presided haunts: namely London`s plushest nightclubs, bars and restaurants.

Zehra:

The Galuoise Blondes await you in the buzzing city of London. Are you daring enough to travel Trans-Atlantic to taste them?

Miriam K

Your curiosity scratchingly inquires ``which Stalinesque brute decided to ban cigarettes in NYC restaurants and bars?``

The Big Apple sheds tears over promiscuously vanishing ashtrays into the palms of nicotine-phobes, who sit on their high-stallions heretically demonizing one of the few pleasures of life: ciggies.

As for the culpabale Stalinesque: Donate your ashes, venom and ciggie butts to none other than Mayor Bloomberg.