College student Pushpraj Singh and his friends love to hang out. Theirs is a group of friends, in a dimly–lit parlour, chitchatting and puffing away their stress with the hookah smoke.

As doctors and anti–tobacco organisations seem to be bracing up their efforts in combating the perilous chemical, an alternate form of it seems to have bitten the youngsters–the hookah.

Pushpraj and his friends are just a minuscule part of the large hip set that goes to the hookah parlours in the city. The trend is picking up fast among students. “We started doing it because it is a fashion statement but now, I like it. It’s fun way to chill out with friends,” says Bhavin Parekh, a MBA student.

The frequency of their visits to the hookah parlours is also startling. Not just on weekends, the parlours are also packed during weekdays. Pushpraj says the number of his visits varies from once in 15 days to twice or thrice a week, depending on the amount of work they have at college. “It helps in releasing stress and is a good pass–time,” adds Bhavin.

The craze for the waterpipe seems to be more prevalent among outstation students, who don’t have to go back to their parents smelling of hookah smoke. Increasing purchasing power and the desire to build an image of being trendy are other reasons why youngsters are taking to this habit.

Even though this art of the bygone days is generally considered less harmful than smoking, the doctors have a different opinion to share. “The water through which tobacco gets filtered in a hookah contains numerous chemicals which are addictive and also harmful for health in many other ways,” says Mandora, a city–based physician and a specialist of the respiratory system.

According to Sumit Bhatti, an ENT consultant at Ruby Hall, tobacco even in form of hookah, is equally carcinogenic (cancer–causing) as cigarette or chewing tobacco. An average session of hookah lasts for at least an hour, which means prolonged exposure to tobacco smoke. The amount of smoke one inhales while having one hookah is equivalent to smoking 100 cigarettes.

Though smoking in public places is banned India, finds it difficult to ban the production of the slow poison. The main reason being it is the largest producer of tobacco and also the second largest consumer of it. Pointing a finger at the government Bhatti raises the question, why is there a ban only on selling and using tobacco in public and why not on manufacturing it? SA


Source: Times of India