The people who make poison look poetic.

It's pretty wild how today's influencers, seemingly without a moral compass, have made glamorizing smoking totally normal. It really bums me out to see cool smoking pics somehow linked to being super smart.

If literary greats can hold cigarettes like they're the coolest thing ever, why shouldn't Arundhati Roy do the same? Just like Ernest Hemingway with his famous cigarette shots, she totally nails her critique of caste. But, seriously, nothing says 'revolutionary' quite like a chill puff.

Rebellion by design Is nothing but a Corporate stunt

The irony is that the whole idea of the cigarette as a revolutionary prop was a manufactured marketing stunt.

Look back at history: the famous "Torches of Freedom" movement in 1929 didn't start with activists, it was a tobacco industry PR campaign that encouraged women to smoke in public by equating the cigarette with emancipation and equality.

And Hollywood? From the brooding "bad boy" to the sharp-witted intellectual, the cigarette became the ultimate pre-packaged prop for the rebellious, the non-conformist, and the effortlessly cool. If literary greats like Ernest Hemingway could look cool with a smoke, or if an author like Arundhati Roy chooses the image to nail her critique of caste, the visual is undeniably powerful. But let's be honest: does anything scream "revolutionary" less than a casual puff of an addictive product?

If true rebellion means challenging the status quo, why do we still accept a script written for us?

Where Is the Statutory Warning?

When a film shows a dangerous stunt, we get a clear, firm disclaimer: “Statutory warning: these stunts are performed by experts and should not be done at home.” In many places, like India, we see similar on-screen messages for smoking, violence, and animal harm.

This is exactly what we need for the things the world chooses to idealize. The issue isn't that a person enjoys a drink or a coffee, or even an occasional smoke, the issue is the blind, widespread glamorization of habits that are bad for us when they go beyond the limit. If a photo promotes the look of cool through a cigarette, it should carry a health message as prominent as the cigarette itself.

The True Measure of "Bad"

"Who gets to decide what is good or bad?" people will ask.

Well, if you're reading this, you are alive, and you are eating food and taking care of yourself because you have an interest in continuing to live. So, let's say, if your fundamental goal is to continue existing and thriving, then anything that makes you deviate from that most basic aim, whether it’s excessive smoking, drinking, or even too much coffee is arguably "bad" or "negative."

The power of an author or a thinker is in their ideas, their words, and their actions, not in their props. Let’s stop mistaking pre-packaged cool for genuine intelligence or revolution. 

True rebels switch gears and think for themselves.

It's crazy how marketing gurus can make cigarettes seem cool and rebellious. They often go after teenagers, who are usually in that rebellious phase, making it easy to hook them into smoking.

So, the next time you light a cigarette and strike that effortlessly cool pose for the camera, perhaps pause for a second. Not to enhance your cool factor, but to consider who is watching. Somewhere out there, an innocent soul is idealizing you, absorbing your every move as gospel. And that puff? It's not just smoke; it's influence. It's normalization. It's a silent invitation to self-destruction, beautifully wrapped in aesthetic appeal.

You might never have heard the sobs of children who lost their parents to addiction, illness, or misguided admiration. You might never have witnessed how grief clings to a family like smoke to fabric. But they followed someone like you, someone who made poison look poetic.

So no, it's not just a cigarette, gutka, kaini, or pan masala. It's a ripple. And you're not merely 'being cool'; you're playing with lives you'll never meet, never mourn, and never even notice.

When style overrides substance, and trends eclipse thought, we lose not just our individuality, but our capacity for compassion. Smoking isn’t cool. It’s a symptom of cultural amnesia.

Honestly, I'm not even angry. I'm just deeply impressed by the sheer commitment to nonsense. It's usually the weak minds who strive to fit into society. In this process, they end up losing their individuality by becoming puppets of so-called trendsetters.

So this is a humble plea to everyone out there who is reading this, being different is not bad, have the courage to stand up for your own idea, your own style, be unapologetically you. What makes you unique is not just your aesthetic, but it should also come from your thoughts. The world would be a difficult place to live, if there were not enough reformers, and reformers were the ones who always thought differently and had the courage to stand by it. You may die in a world where your thoughts and ideas are not welcomed, or maybe even ditched or made fun of, but stand by it, even if the whole world is against you someday there will be a deviation.But ultimately, living life on your own terms and being true to yourself is more valuable than living as someone you're not. And what’s worth living life being someone else?