Smoking is injurious to health: I was active in games and sports.
In my teens I played table tennis, cricket and was an avid cyclist which developed my physical stamina immensely.
I joined the army and was commissioned into Bengal sappers as a young 2nd Lieutenant.
I was active in all outdoors activities and enjoyed a healthy lifestyle with the occasional drink in the evenings.
I also picked up the habit of smoking when I was attending a course in Pune. The daily runs and physical training were not a part of our daily routine and life went on till I was detailed for a short course in Counter- Insurgency and Jungle warfare in Mizoram
As part of endurance training, the first of the three one mile runs was conducted. It’s called the triple M- MMM( Mathew Mad Mile).
I was confident I could do the run in an excellent time. The run started and I started with confidence.
Very soon I realised that I was panting and struggling for breath. The whole body was protesting. I was sweating profusely, my stomach was cramping and there was a shooting pain in my abdomen.
I slowed down and continued running. An asthamatic diabetic could have done better than me, that is what I felt then.
The terrain was challenging. Starting on a flat smooth surface, we hit an incline and running up an incline slowed me down to a walk as fitter guys went past me.
Next there was a steep descent from the road to a narrow hill path. Slipping and sliding I descended down the ‘kuccha’ path even as my knees were subjected to a kind of strain they had never experienced in life.
My lungs were on fire, there was excruciating pain in my abdomen and I was just staggering along in sheer agony.
After descending down a few hundred feet, we reached a flat road but less than 50 meters later we were faced with an enormous climb up a narrow, hill path. If ever I have experienced hell, this was it.
I used to pride myself on running up an incline but this sheer climb reduced me to a ragged beggar craving and gasping for air.
I barely noticed a few others who had stopped and were vomiting all the food from their last dinner. I was tempted to stop too but I carried on, forcing myself to put one step up and then another and kept going.
Finally, we climbed up to a road and hit the home stretch. I looked up and found a few miserable souls ahead of me. The fitter ones had disappeared but I couldn't care less
I tried to accelerate to catch up and overtake them but quickly gave up on the stupid idea and started struggling to just stay upright. I was determined to complete the run
I barely managed to complete the run in a satisfactory time. The Mathew Mad Mile run had dented my confidence and I was gutted.
Later that evening, I was reflecting upon my poor performance, even as I was sipping a glass of whiskey with soda and smoking a cigarette.
That is when it hit me like a bolt.
I suddenly understood the reason for my poor performance. It was the cigarette, aka the stamina stick in the smokers' circles, that was the root cause.
In the midst of a deep inhalation I decided to give up smoking for a week and see if I do better in the second MMM run that was a week away.
I abstained from smoking for a week and ran the second MMM and then the third in excellent timings.
This was a lesson I learned the hard way and have abstained from smoking ever since. Smoking kills your health, and does it very effectively and ruthlessly
