quit the dum

Well, a friend of mine called me yesterday and asked me if i dint mind writing an article on how I quit smoking and I said "why not" ! I wrote the article and then decided to blog it as well. So all you smokers out there, all I can say is watch out ! This post may end up being your nemesis; Or your incentive to quit ! So here goes..
Hailing from a family of tobacco smokers it was inevitable that I would smoke too, someday or the other. That day came when i was in the second year of college. I would, like every other smoker, blame it on peer pressure. In comparison to chronic smokers though, my smoking era can only be considered a stint. That phase of my life, as fugacious as it was, did manage to play a detrimental effect on my health. Smoking became an addiction. My exercise endurance levels took a declivous turn. Being a healthcare professional I knew that what iwas doing was rather dopey. Knowing fully well ill-effects of smoking,I knew I was trudging down the wrong path. I then slowly realised the need to quit. Like most smokers who try to quit I went through the times when I would quit for a few days only to start once again. I was once told that my uncle who was once a smoker woke up one morning and kicked the habit. I realised that was the only way to do it.I quit one fine day, and have never looked back ever since then. My smoking days(about 5 yrs) were over ! Its all in the mind. The urge to smoke surfaces very rarely these days. But my mind fights that urge,supresses it and the urge is gone. I feel so much more healthier thesedays. I would like to thank 2 people for helping me kick the habit; my girlfriend and a professor of mine. They have been my pillars of strength with regard to quitting smoking.
When one gives excuses such as "I am trying", "I have reduced the number of cigarettes I smoke", "I will quit smoking in a few days".. it only reflects the person's obstinacy to not let go of the habit. One more thing I would like to mention is that smoking is the provenance of all other drug intake and addiction. It is just not worth it ! Smoking by all means is a pestilential habit. Stub your cigarette today ! Thats the only way you can quit smoking.

life as seen through a 50mm lens

My new found fascination for photography is the foundation for this post.

Life as seen through a 50 mm lens . The 50 mm lens is, as I have realised, considered to be a boon in the realm of photography. The randomness of the mind, as enigmatic as it is, goaded me to compare life with this lens !

Using a wide aperture, for instance f2 or f3 one can get a vivid image of only the object in focus while the rest of the picture is a blur. A very shallow DOF - Depth Of Field. The 'bokeh' effect in photographic parlance. This wide aperture is much like the characteristics of every 'normal' homosapien. Man is very perseverant in achieving his goals that everything else around him gradually becomes an insidious blur. f2 !

Now using a narrow aperture (f16 maybe) we not only get the object in focus but the rest of the background as well in all its lifelike sharpness. Very few of us are comparable to this narrow aperture. We seldom take the world around us into consideration. This world of assumed oblivion is more welcomed by us.

The 50 mm lens is apparently used for street photography. Everyday life. This is one of the main reasons i decided to compare it with our lives. Did you know that the 50 mm lens is a.k.a the 'normal lens' as its field of vision is akin to that of the human eye. Another reason !

The lugubrious phases of our lives pose a challenge to fight against all odds and emerge victorious. Like these dark phases is low light. Our victory is similar to the ability of this lens to shoot very good pictures in extremely low light using wider apertures(f2 again !). Our grit makes us focus better on one thing and one thing only thus rendering the world around us a 'bokeh'.

The absence of a zoom in the 50 mm lens requires us to be mobile to get a good picture. Move back and forth! A lot of hard work ! To get this perfect life (a perfect picture in every sense of the word) we need to be dynamic. Hard work again !

The coruscation of the 50 mm lens ! Cant wait to get my hands on one.

And no, I haven't lost it. Not yet !