Monday, November 07, 2011

Smoking sweet

Why is it that every boy tries to act like a man to look stronger, by mimicking some adult habits like pretending to hold a cigarette and puff up imaginary smoke by curling his lips and tilting his head upwards. I know because I've done that a lot, not because I wanted to feel like a man but because it felt so cool !! The heroes in movies and advertisements puff up smoke, then go and do awesome things like kicking villain's ass or impressing a girl with their macho. I tried to feel that awesomeness too, but using fake cigarettes.
Amongst my fake cigarettes, my favorite one was 'pencil'. Yes, I always had a pencil with me in my pencil-box, and of different sizes. It was always available. Sometimes I used to eat off some wood at the end of the pencil, sometimes the lead. And holding the pencil between my index and middle finger, and slowly, easily exhaling air pretending it to be loaded with nicotine made me feel all tension leaving my mind. Now I know it was the 'slow exhalation' step in 'deep breathing' exercise which is famously used in Yoga and relaxation techniques.
I also used Phantom 'sweet cigarettes' which I'm sure some of you who lived their childhood in the 1990s would know about. Now this was basically white peppermint with red color at one of its tip to show the burning part of cigarette. And if we split it in two equal halves, there was always an argument on who'd get the one with the red color at the tip.
And the most unusual one, which you may find awkward, the lolipop! At least on the outside, it looks a little like cigarette!
The best season to test out the fake cigarettes is Winters, especially early mornings. While going to school my friends and I used to compete as to how much fog a person could exhale. That macho feeling amidst the shivers... what fun !!

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Haha! Yes I remember!!
The title did suggest the content but was a pleasure as usual reading it.

Abhishek said...

Thanks Divenita. :) I'm glad you liked it !!

Nagarjuna said...

good one Abhishek...
mine was a Marico biscuit...
If you have a bite of it, you'll have powder falling off it..I used to tap the biscuit to get a feel of ash falling off my cigarette..And yeah, once the sweet part of lollipop is done with, what's left is our pseudo cigar...!

Abhishek said...

Hey Nagarjuna, that biscuit thing is quite innovative! :D
Yeah, cigar has its own Style! ;)

Pavitra said...

Even I love smoking :P with a pencil.
As a kid I loved to behave like a cruel girl with a cigarette in the hands.

Anonymous..as always said...

"I used to compete as to how much fog a person could exhale." Are you a fog man?? Its not the fog you exhale..it's the air always. Let me tell you the science behind the particles which you see while exhaling the air in Winters. What you exhale is a mixture of many gases containing CO2, H20 etc. Since the air you exhale is warm in nature and when it comes into the cool environment, H20 starts condensing and you see those tiny water droplets. Don't spread such stupid messages - "It feels cool to hold cigarettes" through your blog post as that would impact your readers adversely.

Abhishek said...

@Pavitra: Cruella !! :P
@Anonymous..as always: Thrilled to receive your comment.. as always. :)

Raja said...

You know one thing.. I have been doing the same thing with my sketch pen today and it feels great man.. very well written abhi :)

Abhishek said...

Thanks Raja. :) I'm glad you liked it. I'm glad we have so many non-cigarette smokers amongst us. :P

supriya kapila said...

I loved phantom sweet cigarettes but I just prefer the real ones now !