World Tobacco Day: Poets highlight negative effects of smoking in verse

Participants of mushaira stress on the media to delink cigarettes and glamour.

ISLAMABAD:

In the wake of the ban on sheesha in the capital, young poets were invited to highlight the dangers of tobacco usage at a mushaira organised by South Asia Free Media Association (SAFMA) on World Tobacco Day.

The organisers, SAFMA, in collaboration with Samar, an organisation working to push for stricter anti-tobacco laws, decided to use poetry as a medium to express the harmful effects of smoking. The step was taken considering that poetry has mainly been used to romanticise smoking and drinking.

Samar Executive Director Mazhar Arif was the first to discuss the effects of smoking and on a lighter note added that as a youngster he did give smoking a try but after the headache he got the first time, he never touched cigarettes again.

The need for the media to highlight the harmful effects of tobacco was also discussed before the poetry recital as audience members agreed that in many movies and songs the lead characters are often shown smoking which tends to link smoking with glamour instead of deteriorating health.

Participants shared that the rising use of pan, gutka and especially sheesha amongst youngsters as part of daily entertainmentwas also a cause for concern.

Each poet recited short verses villifying smoking and tobacco, blending humour with perfect seriousness. Atta Turab coined the
term ‘casual genocide’ for smoking in his verses as he described public smoking as a direct assault on other people’s lives.

Ravish Nadeem humourously compared cigarette smoke to car fumes, while Ali Akbar decried the cultivation of tobacco instead of wheat.

Zahid Amroz sheepishly admitted to smoking the entire day while penning down his verses for the occasion.

Some of the poets also highlighted social issues such as blasphemy, hinting at those who kill in the name of God and suicide bombers.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 30^th, 2012.