35-cigarettes-a-day-to-zero-here-s-how-you-do-it

Niranjan Kaushik, author of a how-to book, Kick Smoking with Ninja, went from puffing 35 cigarettes a day to zero and likes to call himself a non-smoker rather than an ex-smoker. 

Kaushik is a film director, show-runner, screenwriter, content writer and entertainment professional. His notable works include 9 Hours (Disney-Hotstar), Candy (Voot),and Karenjit Kaur (Zee5) and advertising for globally renowned brands like Lee Cooper, L’Oreal Paris, Mercedes Benz, Volkswagen and HSBC. 

 

On World No-Tobacco Day (May 32) we feature an interview in which he  talks about how he kicked the habit and his journey to rewiring the brain. 

 

Q. Congratulations on your book Kick Smoking with Ninja. What is it about and who is it for? And what is the programme?

 

NK: Basically, the book is for anyone who wants to stop smoking. That has to come from within. The book is all about a very logical step by step, scientific approach to how you can do that. At no point does it scare or make it like a very difficult uphill task because it's not.

 

The book is about how to reprogramme your mind to what it was before you started smoking. And the point to remember is that, you know, none of us were born smokers. How do you reset yourself to original settings or to factory settings? Once you do that, there really isn't a question about quitting smoking. And, I don't even like the word quitting, because you are not quitting something. You are just becoming who you were – a non-smoker. 

 

I don't call myself an ex-smoker. I call myself a non-smoker because I became one all over again. So that's really what the book is about, how you go from being a smoker to a non-smoker again.
 
Q. When did you try your first cigarette?

 

I tried my first cigarette at the age of 11 and, yes, that's a really young age! I come from a family of smokers so my father smoked, my uncles were smokers.

 

 Some of my aunts were smokers. It was the early ‘80s and I think I just tried a cigarette from my father's ashtray, which he had left halfway. It was late at night and I remember it didn't really taste good and I put it away. By the time I was 16 or 17, I was actually smoking fairly regularly, about three to five cigarettes every day. I'm over 50 now and I stopped when I was 45. By then, I was smoking an awful lot, close to 35 to 40 cigarettes.

 

It’s interesting how the sense of smell and taste starts coming back. We used to play cricket on the streets in the rainy season and over the years of smoking, I had forgotten what wet earth exactly smelled like. I mean, you have a vague idea but it's always mixed with the smell of burning tobacco. 

 

So what the programme really does is that by helping you associate with who you were and going back to who you were, it removes the very desire to smoke. It's absolute freedom.

 

Q. When did the turning point come?

 

NK: It was during demonetisation. I think it was November 8, 2016. At eight o'clock, the Prime Minister announced that, you know, the ₹500 notes are demonetised. And of course, he gives enough options to take it to the bank. But, a smoker thinks differently. The smoker’s brain is the brain of an addict. Nicotine is a drug. The sooner you accept it, the faster you're gonna overcome it. 

 

So that's how the brain of the addict in me worked at that point. And I said, okay, these currency notes are not going to be legal tender. I had around ₹20,000 and I remember driving to my neighbourhood market and I bought 80 packets of cigarettes for ₹16,000. On my way back, one part of my brain was telling me that I really need to reexamine this relationship as cigarettes are not grocery.

 

That's when I got curious about experimenting with kicking the habit. And I wanted to do it in a very foolproof manner. So I put in a lot of time reading about how to rewire the brain. By February, 2017, the following year, I had a programme ready, written and, and then I still was smoking. After initially asking friends to try out my programme, in March the following year, I decided to apply it on myself.

 

I remember it was around 8 pm. It's about a five-hour programme. The programme is actually a very classic powerpoint presentation, literally taking the smoking habit apart in your head point by point. And by the time it was 11:30 pm, I had completely lost any desire to smoke in a matter of hours.

 

Q. Tell me, I'm curious that you didn’t apply the programme on yourself first?

 

NK: Psychologically, I was very afraid that it would actually work and I probably wasn’t ready. Smoking feels like giving up a relationship and no matter how toxic, it still is a relationship. More so because this relationship is associated with so many happy moments in your life. It’s the companion you take on holidays with you. It’s the friend who comes to your aid on a bad day at work or on a bad day in your relationship.

 

Then, I said, I'm really stupid if I don't want to apply it on myself. And, and now it's been seven years and I have never ever felt the slightest desire to smoke or even have just one puff. It takes 21 days to make or break any habit. But, don’t be arrogant that you've done it for 21 days and now you're invincible. Know that even if you take one puff after 10 years, the slippery slope will begin right there.

 

Q. You’ve written that one should just enjoy the withdrawal phase that comes. It must be torturous, right?

 

NK: You technically need to do it only for the first 72 hours. Because that's when the chemical effects of the addiction actually start receding. It reaches a complete crest where you really have this craving and then after 45 seconds, it starts wearing out and it goes away. Gradually, it doesn't return for longer periods of time. 

 

Q. You’ve mentioned in your book about how you snuck out for cigarettes during your father’s funeral. You later realised that you actually checked out for those minutes when your family was grieving.

 

NK: This was in 2009. I had reached the cremation ground (driving from Mumbai to Pune), not really having smoked at all. It sounds really insensitive but it's real and, therefore, it has to be said. My mind did this cruel math – it said I had already not smoked for four hours. I had another two hours of this. That's, you know, six hours.

 

So, then, I made a very lame excuse. I just said, I need to make a few calls. Everyone knew – the priest, my mother, my sister, my wife that there was no one to be called or spoken to. And I actually walked out of there and smoked a cigarette and I didn’t even pretend to be on a call.

 

At that point, I did not honestly think about, you know, my father being no more. I was just saying, okay, this is enough nicotine fix for me for the next two hours. That was a telling moment and I hid it for the longest time. I couldn't talk about it. 

 

Q: So, basically you're just never in the present moment, right?

 

NK: You're not. The only time you're really present is for that few minutes that you're smoking that cigarette. And then again, you're not mindful about it. If you were, you would notice how awful it tastes and it really tastes bad. 

 

Q. Anything you would like to add?

 

NK: I definitely want to tell, particularly youngsters, that there is this nexus going on in big tobacco and big Pharma, who are working in tandem to get more and more and more people into the nicotine fold. I'm not imagining this. Stay away from nicotine and all the so called substitutes.

 

(The interviewer, Anuradha Varma, is a freelance journalist and mindset coach. She hosts the podcast Swishing Mindsets and tweets @anuvee).