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There was a recent news item that Indian Railways have proposed to decriminalize smoking inside coaches. They want to prevent smoking by imposing hefty fines. Why criminalize this when imposing fines can do the trick? This will not only reduce legal procedures but would also increase the collection of revenue. It is, to my mind, a welcome step. A Hefty Fine for smoking. The smoker would certainly consider it for sometime. To what extent can he comply is what no one can guess.
The Wikipedia says smoking in India is about 3000 years old. It is funny but in India smoking is literally drinking smoke - Dhumrapana. Ordinariely when people refer to smoking they refer to it as drinking smoke. For example if you are asking "did you drink a cigarette?"it means did you smoke a cigaratte? I wonder if other countries too treat smoking so nicely. It is reported by WHO that there are approximately 120 million smokers in India. It is approximately 12% of the world's smoking population. So 120 million Indians are not just smoking - they are drinking smoke too.
How innocuous it appears when smoking starts, how unnoticed it creeps into your habits and with what stubbornness it sticks on to you despite all statutory warnings, threats of families. laws of the country and rules and regulations at work places is what is amazing. You try to give up the habit, it bounces back with impunity. You might just say to yourself, "only this time" or "just once" "by smoking once I am not going back to the old habit" etc.etc. "God!. Damn it!. It doesn't leave me". More appropriately I am not able to leave". It makes you to test your powers. People call it willpower. Like in the Ballad of Father Giligon where the Priest gets tired of attending to the diseased for prayers, takes a break. Then he repents and says "Oh God!, sorry, it is my body who spoke. Not I" and God sends an angel to take care". Likewise, a smoker, after trying very hard to quit the habit, finally says sorry it is the circumstances and not I. But God has no spare angels for attending to these circumstances.
Looking back I cannot clearly remember when Smoking crept into me as a habit. But let me confess this is the deadliest habit one imbibes. In our younger days smoking was not so much looked down as is being done now. I remember once a Bengali old couple seating in front of me in the train saw me taking out a cigarette and proudly mentioned "our son, loves two things - first cricket and second smoking" While going on a train journey one would always make sure that there is enough stock for the journey. Which smoker does not know that the best time to enjoy smoking is the travelling time where you simply sit and ruminate through the clouds of smoke.. Some people told me "why do you need to smoke while travelling? you think the people who do not smoke do not enjoy the travel?". I could never answer to these questions. But much later I got this answer from Dr. Sangeeta Gosain, Director of Culture Department of Utkal University.. We were discussing the beauty of Raag Jaunpuri. I told her "Madam, don't you think the people who have not been blessed with the knowledge of music miss a lot in life?". She told me "don't worry Mr, Das they are not aware of the loss".So simple!!
From my own experience I can definitely tell that for a smoker running out of stock in the train is the most pitiable condition. When I say stock, please always understand the commodity. On top of that someone seated next to you takes out a pack, keeps it in front of you, and lights one You have not yet broken into conversation. So you cannot ask for one. You tolerate him for smoking. But after sometime he takes out another. Oh! no. This time also perhaps you convince yourself that your's is a different brand and you can't switch loyalty etc. etc.. But once more...... No. Not at all. The obvious happens. During the first two burnings several sentences would have been coined in the mind like -"..actually..I use ..", "I wanted to tell you....." "Can I borrow...".so on and so forth". In the beginning of the third one the words simply slip out of your lips effortlessly and almost without even your being aware of it. But those days, on some stations and even in the compartment you could buy some. So even if borrowed, the lender and borrower knew that it could be replenished.
Then suddenly government regulations came into effect in 1989. The relevant section is 167. For the benefit of readers, I give below the three parts of Section 167 of Indian Railway Act 1989.
(1) No person in any compartment of a train shall, if objected to by any other passenger in that compartment, smoke therein.
(2) Notwithstanding anything contained in sub-section (1), a railway administration may prohibit smoking in any train or part of a train.
(3) Whosoever contravenes the provisions of sub-section (1) or sub-section (2) shall be punishable with fine which may extend to one hundred rupees.
Subsequently there was an amendment in 2003 which stated that a person who is unable to pay the fine will face imprisonment.
Some of the observations of CAG and some Senior Railway Protection Force Officials in respect of smoking in the train are that looking at paltry penalty of Rs.100 the damages caused to Railways is huge. People often did not care about Rs.100 as penalty. There were also demands from passengers for Smoking Corners like they have in Airports. Since such facilities are absent, the passengers said, they were forced to smoke in toilets and near the doors. There is a serious discussion going on to do something about it. Now they want to increase the penalty but will not make this a criminal offence. Let us wait and see what happens.
Now, coming to implementation of Rules, some of the Railways Staff are following the rules strictly. Once when I was at Vijaywada station, a vendor in the platform told me do not smoke anywhere here. They are very strict. Minimum Rs.200/-, they will definitely collect from you plus you never know what they may do to you. This was a real threat. From my experience in travelling in south I knew there is no room for discussion once the rule is told to you. By hearing a 100% more in penalty plus what they may do , my desire of smoking instantly left the body or mind - God knows from where it came.
In Gujarat I had a different experience.Sometime during 2000, I was travelling in the train near Surat. In the train there was no place to sit. The whole seating coach compartment including the passage, the toilet area, the gate, every place was full with people. I cannot say with certainty, from where the urge crept in. I also felt that no Railway staff would like to stand the way we were standing. I decided to quench the thirst. There he was in plain clothes. He was very polite. He simply said "Sir, you have to pay a fine of Rs.100/-." I thought I could outsmart him. I asked him to show me the orders of Railways for the fine. I could hardly believe my eyes when he instantly produced the paper. I too turned to be polite and requested him to permit me to complete the act for the full fine. He permitted and collected the amount. We were friends thereafter till I got down.
Effective 2nd October 2008, the rules on smoking became more stringent. The fine went upto Rs.5000/-.
Section (4) of the Cigaratte and Other Tobacco Product Act (COTPA) 2003 prohibits smoking in all public places. ‘Public Place’ is defined as any place to which the public has access whether as of right or not and includes all places visited by general public namely auditorium, hospital building, railway waiting room, amusement centers, public offices, court buildings, educational institutions, libraries, coffee houses, canteens, banks, clubs and also open spaces surrounding hotels/restaurants etc .
After this there has been a scare of a different kind in the minds of Indians. In Office corridors also smoking was banned. I remember during that time I was in Mumbai. I was sitting on the 17th floor of the Office. Because of these rules the entire band of the office would frequently meet outside the office near the road.
During these years a number of new shops were seen just outside the railway corridors where the trains generally had to wait for signal. There you would definitely get to replenish your stock. I do not clearly remember the name of the place. But the train stopped there. I had no stock and I was very restless-- how to get, where to get etc. etc. With that anxiety one can't even sit on his seat. The moment the train stopped I got down. I saw a shop at a distance of about 200 yards. But how to leave the train and travel that far. They say, necessity is the mother of invention. There she was at work. I called a boy standing there. I gave him my empty packet and fifty rupees. I told him "this costs forty rupees. If you can run this distance and reach me a packet I give you another fifty." Lo! it worked.
Like me 120 million smoke drinking Indians may have had millions and millions of such and more difficult situations while travelling in trains. Stories related to their smoking, if compiled, also would be a voluminous text. But on behalf of Railfail let me make an appeal to all those who smoke as on date. You are not welcome in the train if you cannot abstain from smoking for the hours of travel. If possible, get rid of this habit on the earliest opportunity. I got this opportunity at a great cost. I will narrate some other time how I smoked my last cigarette in the train between my second and third heart attacks. This too inside the toilet of the train where it dawned on me that this habit has been the root cause of many of my miseries. There I dropped my last pack and a very costly lighter along with it and bid goodbye to smoking. If you do not want some heart attacks to learn this process you better look for something else. Railfail does not approve of your smoking either in the rail or elsewhere. Good luck.
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really well-written script
ReplyDeleteI have seen your days with this habit which you could successfully give up. You must have liked the pain one undergoes with this habit.Thank you so much for taking out time for my blog.
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