Facing the boy was a girl almost of same age. What I can secure correctly is that they're all teenagers, the look on their faces and their inherent 'ajebotic' modus-operandi accentuates their personality. The texture of their skin represents a picture of perfect happiness.
They
appear to be from affluent family if my guess seemed correct! There's a perfect balance
between their personality and what they were doing. The distance that separates
us wasn't far enough that they could take no
notice of my presence. For that reason my presence seems conspicuous.
The
duos were sipping a
smoke from a pipe that was
attached to a long elastic tube that draws the smoke through
water. You can easily notice that they were contented with the palatability of
the content of the mixture. They acknowledged my presence and appreciate it by
expressing that cheerful attitude of 'Bisimillah ' as an invitation to join them.
I
smiled a little and asked ‘what it is?’ They smiled in response to my query and
said: ‘It is Shisha’ I asked again: ‘Don't
you think it's a reorganized version of tobacco?’ The girl assertively said:
‘NO! It is Shisha and it contains nothing but flavour’. That was the very
moment when I began to gauge the difference between us. As an student
emeritus of chemistry, I know the medical repercussion of smoke as it gets into the body system in whatever form, but here I am amidst people who
are ignoramus of that. With that
in mind, I opened a floodgate of dialogue with these chaps to
gauge the connection between their knowledge, age and perception and then again to find
a reason to write this
epistle.
The
result of that conversation promotes an urgent need for this piece. This epistle
firmly asserts that we live in a generation where our youths are reduced
to a mere copycats and
they are growing up with
that kind of mentality of a 'if you can't beat 'em - join 'em'. There's also
the herd mentality of 'ai larabawa ma suna shan shisha ' which many of our youths hold tenaciously and are ever
ready to be defensive whenever someone attempts to be corrective.
Our
youths are dyed-in-the-wool and embrace cultures that reduce them
to abbreviated pieces of nothing. If Shisha smokers believe their habit is a strict
adherence to Arabian culture, they should also remember that educated, faithful
and civilised Arabs don’t smoke, because they know, to
smoke, in whatever form poses a serious potential health hazard.
One
with average grade in chemistry can easily conclude that
Shisha is more dangerous than
cigarettes, the depth of inhalation, frequency of puffing and the length of the
smoking session poses more serious health challenges than cigarettes. The Charcoal in the Shisha increases chance
of disease and delivers more smoke in the body than
popular tobacco.
Tuberculosis,
herpes, hepatitis can be transmitted through sharing of the same mouthpiece of
the Shisha pipe. Smokers, who believe that Shisha consumption is a social
activity or a hobby, and
it is harmless, need to read
more on Shisha and its chemical content. For the benefit this generation, my
little investigation into its chemical mixture reveals that Shisha contains
numerous toxic substances; Carbon monoxide, tar and cancer causing substance
(nicotine) and other 4000 chemicals of which 398 are poisonous and 71 are cancerous.
If you insist you must copy Arabs for some sacred reason,
the best way to do that is by copying Al-Sudais, Al- Shuraim, Minshawi, Ali Jabir, Adil Kalbani or any frontline ‘Qari’. Doing only that will elevate your status in the
societal spectrum and the name of your family would be at the top of the esteem
ladder.
And if you are exposed
to Shisha because of its
popularity, or firm belief that it is harmless, it may interest you to know
that it's poisonous to your ingenuity, and all addicted Shisha smokers need to
limit their exposure to it. It is never (in any way) connected to civilisation;
instead it stained your reputation in the eyes of the public. Shisha is not a
measure of your exposure or education. It doesn't dignify your position in the
society. If you think it smoking dignifies you, then what, exactly, is “dignity?”
Shisha smoking is only an advertisement of your ignorant of its detrimental effect on your body system.
No matter how highly adept or amateurish you are in smoking this
dirty mixture (Shisha), none of your family member will be proud of you and
your doom is near. If you are aspiring to be great, and be recognised, study
hard. And if you want to be look with reverence, don’t smoke!
M. A USMAN
@reactor19
reactiveelelement@gmail.com
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