The dangers of smoking are well known today thanks to widespread awareness. But this wasn’t so in the 1960s and 70s when I was a smoker. Deluded by beguiling cigarette ads that glorified smoking, many youngsters like me were naive enough to believe that puffing away lent one an aura of manliness. One ad, I recall, bragged “For men of action—satisfaction!” No pack ever carried the now obligatory health warning.
My British boss was a cigar fancier. He chomped on thick, scented Havana cigars with obvious relish, liberally ‘asphyxiating’ me with their fumes when we travelled together in his jeep. I didn’t really mind it since I rather liked the pungency. However, he could never stand the whiff of beedis to which his driver was addicted. Whenever he approached his car or jeep he would sniff suspiciously. “Sebastian! You’ve been smoking beedis again!”he once bellowed. “No, sir!” came the prompt denial. “Then why the hell is this car reeking of beedi’s moke?” Sebastian’s shamefaced silence—eloquent proof of his guilt—cooled the Brit’s temper. Despite being pulled up several times, the spunky driver showed no inclination to give up beedis. Instead, to rid his breath of the unpleasant odour, he took the precaution of gargling vigorously before the boss’s arrival, thus removing all traces of his indulgence.
Smoking in front of our British bosses was unthinkable, even on social occasions, lest it be misconstrued as an act of insubordination and reflected in one’s annual confidential report. So we did it in stealth. Once, caught in the act unexpectedly, a colleague all but swallowed his fag. Another hid the cigarette behind his back and burnt a hole in his trousers. And yet another colleague, in a similar situation, heard his snooty boss rasp sarcastically, “Sending out smoke signals, eh?”
Smokers who came into close contact with their bosses—especially if he was a non-smoker with an ultra-sensitive sniffer—often faced problems. One inveterate smoker told me how he overcame this issue by applying a mild perfume on his shirt to effectively mask the whiff of cigarette smoke.
Eventually, it was a well orchestrated anti-smoking campaign launched by Reader’s Digest in the form of several true-life articles highlighting the perils of the puff that ended my pernicious habit. It wasn’t easy but I persisted and finally succeeded in abandoning the vice for good. It was a personal triumph and moral victory for me.
Email: gnettomunnar@rediffmail.com