It has been six years since the 60-year-old family physician from Girgaum has quit smoking. Dr Krishnakant Dhebri, who started smoking at the age of 13, now inspires his patients with his story on how he kicked the butt, and managed to stay firm on his resolution to not smoke.

"It all started when I saw my favourite actor smoke in movies during my school days," said Dr Dhebri.

As the years passed, he got addicted and turned into a chain smoker. "I joined Grant Medical College for my studies, and during my stay in the hostel my habit only got worse. When I was at home, I used to crave cigarettes and make lame excuses just to get out of the house and smoke," said Dr Dhebri.

It was only after he suffered a cardiac arrest that he started thinking about quitting for good. "Sixteen years ago, I suffered a cardiac arrest. I didn’t have any risk factors apart from being a chain smoker. It was a warning bell for me. That was the first time I tried to quit smoking," said Dr Dhebri. Like many smokers, Dr Dhebri couldn’t stick to his resolution for too long. He soon started smoking again.

It was then that Dr Dhebri’s wife, Geeta, made it her mission to help him quit, and she succeeded. "We started having frequent arguments regarding my smoking. I reduced the number of cigarettes I smoked, but was not able to quit completely," said Dr Dhebri.

One day, his wife sat him down and calculated the amount of money he had spent on cigarettes all those years. "I was shocked to see that I had spent lakhs on smoking. It made me feel guilty for depriving my children of so many things, for wasting so much money. When I started smoking, one packet used to cost Rs4. This had gone up to Rs65 when I last smoked. That was the last day I touched a cigarette," said Dr Dhebri.

Dhebri now shares his story with his patients. "It feels nice when my patients say that I inspired them to quit smoking. One such patient has just completed a year of not smoking and I have been encouraging him to continue to not do so. At the end of the day, it is only willpower that can help you to succeed if you have to kick any bad habit," concluded Dr Dhebri.