The early morning breeze, despite the unusually hot late summer in Chennai, was quite refreshing.  After ablutions and being comfortably seated on the rocking chair in the varandah, with the walkman piping in some of my college days favourites of 40’s, there was nothing more I could ask for.   And that is when I look for my wife and the news paper boy, the two persons who mean most to me then.  They did not fail.

My wife placed the hot aromatic coffee on the peg stool gently not wanting the clang of the dabara tumbler to disturb my communion with what was coming out of the walkman.  Poor thing she was thinking I was listening to some religious discourse by Sukhabodananda or Murari Bapu!

The news paper boy was also on the dot and lobbed that day’s newspaper, in cylindrical form, artfully over the gate with a precision of Vijaya Singh’s putting.  The thing landed and rolled to somewhere, where my feet were tapping to the walkman tune.  I had just to bend down and pick it up for the tertiary activity of reading it, without disturbing either of the other two activities – coffee sipping and listening to music.

Like the passenger at the window seat viewing the dots of greenery, cluster of houses, lakes, rivers and the like growing bigger or smaller depending on whether the aircraft was landing or taking off, in a laid-back relaxed way and yet intensely, I was hovering over that day’s head lines.

The walkman was just then drenching me with the mellifluous smoke gets in your eyes of Hogey Carmichael.  As anticlimax will have it, it coincided with my gong over the headlines that gives the boot to smoking scenes in TV serials and cinemas effective from August.  This disturbing news froze, for a few seconds though, my sipping of the coffee.

My mind took me to the good old college days when I saw the picture ‘Casablanca’ many times more for the sheer style in smoking done by Humphrey Bogart, than for his histrionics or for that matter that of Ingrid Bergman – the heroine.  And nearer home, our very own Sivaji!   What an excellent portrayal of the different styles in smoking – crudity, sophistry as displayed in Navaratri and Pudia paravai. 

Backward integration took me to the glorious days when the cigarette manufacturing companies, (some were imperial!) touted their products using catching slogans that portrayed men of action with satisfaction derived through smoking.  They even brought out specialty stuffs exclusively for women – slim and smooth.  At that time to get a berth in such companies in covenant cadre was almost life’s ambition for graduates.  It was more for the free cartons of cigarettes given as monthly quota, whether you smoke or not, than for the salary.  Of course, they all got the message clear from the ‘anti smoking lobby’ and have turned to running of hotels, oil and atta milling etc.

With these matters filling up my mind I set forth for the walk to join my friends – mostly retired in the age group of 60-70 – whose stock in trade is talk, talk …….      The topic that day was on the issue of banning of smoking in cinemas and TV serials.  This even edged out the curiosity as to whatever was happening to the Sankaracharyas now a days.

There are so many other pernicious things in the visual media – wife beating the husband, the son slapping the father, school girl hardly 10 years old falling in love, eloping, affairs more than you care to remember etc.   These are equally cancerous with reference to value system.  Why pick on smoking.  It is like the famous tamil metaphor, often used by MGR “just hiding the comb you cannot hope to stop a marriage”.   Why allow cigarette manufacturing?  May be some of the films and serials can have a message or two (they are famous for!) that smoking is injurious when the person concerned pops off with heavy fits of cough.

In all the above avalanche of argument my role was passive (no tilt at passive smoking please) reached home to reflect if there cannot be a smoke without fire, it cannot be snuffed out either without a hand.    I do know combating cancer is hard enough, all the same  I could not help bringing to my mental screen the battle between (Dr.?) maruthuvar, Ramdas and super star Rajanikant on connected issue!