Far more people die from smoking tobacco than from tuberculosis, AIDS or malaria combined. In America 1,400 people die every day from smoking. The Mayor of the New York City Michael Bloomberg wrote in his book “The Way to save Millions of Lives is to prevent Smoking” that if we don’t interfere now then at the turn of this century this figure will be a staggering 1 billion. In 2002 the US Senate passed a bill prohibiting smoking in work places. This was highly appreciated by the general citizen of the country. This bill, surprisingly, enhanced the sell at the restaurants, too.

After few days the same law was passed in England, France, Italy and Ireland. Also, a high tax was put on cigarettes. The anti smoking campaign received a warm appreciation from the mass. All these measures played an effective role in bringing down smoking by 21%. The juvenile smoking also came down to half.

But the scenario in developing countries is not so inspiring. It is predicted that in the coming decades 80% of the smoking related deaths will occur in the developing nations. In our country the first person to take successful initiative for raising social awareness against smoking was National Professor Dr. Nurul Islam. He established ADHUNIK (Amra Dhumpan Nibaron Kori) – a national institute for the anti smokers. But he himself had to quit his 20 year old addiction before that. He was into smoking since college and cigarette became his constant companion for the next 20 years.

In his autobiography “Jibon Srote” he mentions, “I bought cigarettes and stocked them in advance so that I would always have a supply in times of emergency. It was impossible for me to study without smoking. So when I went abroad, I stockpiled cigarettes in advance, fearing that I won’t be able to go out and buy them if it snowed.

Though I knew all about its bad effects, still then I smoked. I always had a cigarette in between my fingers wherever I went, whether in class or in the wards. I had black marks in my fingers and lips from smoking. But I saw these marks not of shame but of my affordability. I never realized then that I was not only breaking the laws but also setting up an abominable example.

At one time I desired to quit smoking and planned many strategies. At first I used to cut cigarette in two halves and smoked. But this didn’t work. Then one morning I vowed to myself I wouldn’t smoke till noon. But as soon as it was after noon I started smoking so much that just in 2/3 hours my whole day’s allocation ran out! Every day I decided to quit smoking from the next day. But that next day never came and my days were restless.

One morning after prayer I vowed three times in the name of Allah that smoking was forbidden for me and I wouldn’t smoke again in my life. Then started the ultimate struggle, with my vows on one side and my addiction on the other. But at the end my faith and conscience won over my addiction.

Thus from the end of 1963 I never smoked again. Being a doctor I was also able to keep many others away from this deadly habit. Among them are ex-speaker Shamsul Huda Chowdhury, Distinguished lawyer Syed Ishtiaque Ahmed, Film Director and actor Khan Ataur Rahman. Before my retirement from PG I put up a metal plate with the message “Smoking is deadly” in block letters on the south wall of A Block.

But there are also those whom I couldn’t motivate in last two decades to quit smoking. And it really hurts now when I see them suffering from cancer, heart problem, paralysis, chronic bronchitis, asthma and gangrene. This is now an established fact that smoking is deadly. And the only way to get rid of it is simply by quitting it.