Calls apart, old habits die hard

CHENNAI: Even as non-governmental organisations and State arms conduct awareness campaigns across the State, smokers carry on with their routine. Prasanna, an MTech graduate, picked up the habit a decade ago when he was in higher secondary school.Thursday wasn’t special for him, like it wasn’t for most other smokers, and his day began with a smoke right out of bed. Soon after breakfast he bought a pack of cigarettes from a shop at Vijayanagar bus terminus. Lighting up, Prasanna said he did want to quit smoking and had achieved it several times for short spans. But for now, the habit stays.So it does for Anbu Raja, a team leader in an ITES company, who returned from work on Thursday morning with his regular stock of cigarettes for the day. Anbu, who was aware of WNTD, said he had come across several campaigns to quit but is yet to give it a thought. Raja, who runs a tobacco shop, said sale was not affected by the observance of WNTD.For woman smokers in the city WNTD failed to have any impact. Radhika* (24) said, “I have been a smoker for more than five years now. I didn’t even know today was WNTD.” Bhavani * (25) says, “Smoking is something I do when I am tense, and I work at a high pressure job. Whatever day it is isn’t going to affect my habit until I am ready to quit.”