My wanderings _ 15

Some where I have read the definition of cigarette as it being  small bits of straw rolled  together  in a piece of paper with fire on one end and  a fool on another.
            'Cigarette smoking is injurious to Health' and  now 'Smoking kills' are the statutory warnings written on a cigarette pack alongwith photographs of various human organs affected by killer diseases because of  smoking are exhibited thereon.  Moreover, smoking is banned at various public places in India and separate smoking zones have been created in Airports and offices so that people do not get affected by passive smoking, which is considered more dangerous than active smoking now. But manufacture and selling of cigarettes has not been totally banned by Government due to obvious reasons of huge loss to the public exchequer and tobacco  tycoons of India.
In earlier days smoking was not considered as  a vice because  most of the people were smokers. People used to smoke in all public places like offices, cinema Halls and bus stands with out any objection from any quarter.  Moreover, smoking was considered as fashion those days. One of my friends who was a chain smoker told me  once that he was advised by Dr Ali Jan  to take  one or two cigarettes daily as a treatment for his indigestion and gastric ailments and which became his habit latter on. Most of the people were in habit of taking a  Cigarette or two before attending natural calls,  because they believed,  that it helped them in controlling  constipation and to keep their bowels clean.  But the times have changed now. Due to  public awareness of bad consequences of smoking and frequency of air-conditioning in most of the public places, smokers have taken a humble posture now. They try to smoke in secret places discovered by them which are far away from public gaze . Most of the people have left smoking due to awareness of the health  hazards of  smoking made public frequently by Government and media.
Usually the habit of smoking starts in very  young age and then it becomes a habit and a person gets addicted to it  by and by.  Despite of knowing the bad effects  of smoking a person is not able to leave it so easily. People try very hard to leave smoking and sometimes they are able to leave it for months and years together. But then they start it again on one pretext or  the other. Some body has said that it is very easy to leave smoking, I have left it so many times.
But whosoever makes a firm will can leave smoking with out any hazel  and majority of people have left it for good.
Once I came across a short story  in a magazine  written by some imminent writer the title of which was ' Cigarette' . The unusual title of the short story  created curiosity in my mind and   prompted  me read this short story.
The two characters of the short story were Father and Son and both were smokers. Once Father could not find a Cigarette for himself  in late night  and he  looked for a cigarette in the room of his son, where he could find a single cigrette on the side table of the bed. He took the cigrette and smoked it as he needed it badly. After some time when son entered his room, he could not find the cigrette there. He got annoyed and understood that it can be the handiwork of his father because he was the only smoker in addition to himself in the family. In a fit of rage he rebuked his father for this. The Father took this rebuke of his son, and that too for a meagre thing like a cigarette,  very seriously and this Incident changed his entire outlook towards life. He recollected how he has made sacrifices in his entire life for the sake of his son and the same son rebukes him for a single cigrette today.  The next day early in the morning, he called his lawyer and prepared a will  with the provision that all his property should go to some old age home after his death and did not leave a straw for his son to inherit.
The Son  with out knowing his father's decision,  came with all the high brands of cigarettes to please his father, but nothing could change the decision of his father latter on.