Nagpur girls getting hooked to smoking

We are now living in an era where women are rewriting their lives according to their own rules. And when they are chalking out their lives on routes less taken, and fighting for their space - competing with men - it obviously leads to increased stress levels. And there are many young gals in the city, who are taking to smoking on the pretex of beating the stress. We track different dimensions of this alarming trend...Many surveys claim that human brain works in such a way thatif we do something regularly for 21 days, from the 22nd day we tend to adopt itas a habit. Mansi (name changed on request), a commerce student of GS College,says," On my way to college every day, I would see six-seven pan kiosks, so Igot an urge to smoke when I saw people smoking rather stylishly. I've beensmoking for six months."There are other reasons, which nudge the youngsters towardssmoking. Today, teenagers find it tough to balance career, family and loverelationships, and this pressure of having too much to handle makes them resortto fags. Sanchit Sinha, a student of Ramdeobaba College, says, "A few girlssmoke because they just want to show their respective exes that in theirabsence, they are indulging in bad habits, so that they can get them back, usingtheir fave emotional card. So, smoking is basically an excuse to evade thepressures of life and is much abused as an emotionalshield." Many youngsters in the city believe that women smoke just tochallenge the social norms and to show the world that if men can smoke, they cando it too! When we asked a group of girls puffing away to glory at a do, theycasually pointed towards a bunch of guys at a distance and said, "Do thesecigerettes kill only women? They don't kill the men? Then why so much brouhahaover us?" There are many girls, who have a misconception that smoking tendsto increase their glam appeal, whereas it's been scientifically proved thatsmoking leads to a wrinkled skin and a flabby tummy. Parul Arya, a Hislopstudent, says: "Women smoke just to prove that they are very glam, but it doesnot define them as ultra chic. I feel, men today prefer nonsmoking girls astheir partners. I agree that smoking is about personal choice, but in this dayand age, it isn't intelligent to take to an unhealthy habit like smoking.Various surveys have already established the fact that smoking is more injuriousto a woman's health than that of a man.”