From 'just one more' to 'buy the whole damn pack': Allahabad High Court judge writes poem on dangers of smoking

Justice Shekhar B Saraf of Allahabad High Court has written a poem to highlight the dangers of smoking.

Justice Saraf annexed the poem to a judgment delivered by him and Justice Abdhesh Kumar Chaudhary on Tuesday on the illegality of serving hookah in the restaurants in Uttar Pradesh.

"From my own experience of smoking, I pen these last paragraphs in an attempt to educate the young generation of this country to not become a prey to the deleterious and indelible habit of tobacco smoking," Justice Saraf said.

The judge writes that he was an unwilling smoker in the beginning but it soon turned into a habit.

"I entered law school pure as morning dew,

Sneered at the smokers puffing by the gate,

“Weak-willed,” I scoffed, “I’d never join that crew”

Famous last words. Reader, I was bait.

It started with a ‘chaii’, innocent and warm,

A senior offered, “Try one, just for fun.”

I took it like a soldier joins a storm

Bravely, stupidly, and one by one.

The “occasional” ‘sutta’ soon grew bold,

It multiplied like rabbits, unrestrained."

The judge went on to highlight how smoking became a norm for him.

"My lungs, once mine, were quietly sold

To a landlord who never once explained the lease.

I told myself I merely dabbled,

A social smoker, cultured, in control.

Meanwhile the count crept steadily

From 'just one more' to 'buy the whole damn pack'.

Justice Saraf also wrote how smoking badly affected his physical health.

"Then came the cough, my body’s stand-up act,

Performing nightly, free of charge, unasked.

The phlegm arrived, a most unwelcome fact,

As if my throat had been recently tasked

With hosting a swamp. I tried the patch, it itched.

I tried the gum, I chewed it, then lit up regardless,

Like a dieter who’s sworn off cake, then switched

Straight to the icing, calling it “harmless.”

“I’ll quit,” I said, with great conviction twice,

Then thrice, then roughly forty times a year.

Each January brought the same advice

From me, to me, which I did not adhere."

Justice Saraf conceded that he has failed to quit smoking despite multiple attempts.

"I’ve quit the quitting now, if I’ll be honest,

The resolution’s gathering dust and shame,

But hope remains perhaps once this is finished

(This job, this judgment), willpower makes a claim.

So here’s my public service, dressed in rhyme,

From one who walked the very path you tread:

The first cigarette feels like harmless time

It isn’t. Trust the cough, not what I said

At twenty, full of swagger, sure and free.

Don’t be the fool who scoffed, only to become a boiling frog."