Light Of Irla

 

I smoked my first cigarette when I was 18 years old - Wills Navy Cut. I chose that since my dad used to smoke that brand. As if hereditary loyalty meant it would kill me less. I puffed rather than smoked. And huffed more than puffed. It started as a show-off like most things do start at that tender age.  And I smoked as if I had been smoking since I was born. Looking back, I now wonder what was so tender about smoking a cigarette. 

Our secret rendezvous to smoke was to a restaurant called Light of Irla - Irla being the area where we lived. Not sure what light meant. It was mostly dim but suited our purpose. Each of us would leave our house pretending we had an errand to run. Some were more than willing to do some household chores. That always surprised the moms. That was a bit of a stretch. Anyways - four  of us would find our way to the Light of Irla.  Each coming from a different direction.  We would select a table at the far corner where we could look outside and spot if any of our elders came. Hide and smoke.  Two cups of chai were ordered between the four of us.  One guy was our senior in smoking. He had been doing it for a couple of years. He smirked when we coughed. But soon we got used to it - to smoking, not his smirking. It didn’t take long to not cough.  But he had an ace up his sleeve. He made smoke rings. So he continued smirking for some more time till we could do it. This way we could die trying to do everything possible while smoking. 

We carried some mints to ward off the smell. And we chewed or sucked on it till our breath was all mint. This way no one would know we smoked. How easy it was to fool everyone, right? Wrong. 

We didn’t change our rendezvous because we felt safe.  But we stopped going there when we thought we were adult enough to smoke in public. No more hide and smoke. Not that people were thrilled to see us smoke.  

We chain-smoked, but then one day, years later, we gave up. No more tender. Some of us shifted to a different place. One fine day I met an old lady who used to live in our society. Though I had hardly seen her when I lived there. But because of our old neighbours’ attachment we started talking. We talked about all the stuff of our old society. Our growing up and all. And just a matter of factly she said - I used to see you guys having chai at Light of Irla - 

My lights went off……