I like Marc Anthony's song playing in the background. Gives a different dimension to the slideshow...

Quitplan

It's day 7 and my craving right now is driving me insane. I know if I head down to 7-11 to buy a pack of cigarettes or tobacco, all that I went through in the past 7 days will be wasted. I want something sour instead. Something like tamarind (imli), or sour plum bubble tea (without the pearls). Or bharri bhindi (lady fingers filled with Pakistani spices). Or just SOMETHING. I licked a lemon but it didn't help. I want SOMETHING.

Quit Attempt #45645

Today is day four since I quit smoking. After two days, I had immense withdrawal symptoms, such as persistent coughing and chest pains, body ache, a mind-throbbing headache, loss of appetite and well, cravings of course. I felt like I was dying. I ended up having a fever and intense weakness - and those are terrible things to go through in the middle of the night in a foreign country when there is no one to look out for you.

A smoker buddy came over yesterday and I ended up buying a whole pack for him, stealing two cigarettes from it in the process. These two I shared with two people who spent some time with me in the past two days, puff by puff, to help stop me from going back to smoking (by being forced to buy a whole pack when I can just do with a loose cigarette to fight the urge).

I think my appetite just returned today as I had my fourth meal a while back.

Actually, most people would suggest (and rightly so) that I phrase it as "an attempt to quit smoking" (in the first line of this post) rather than "I quit smoking". When it has been nine years since you've been trying to quit, it's quite normal for people to be uber skeptical.

But it's nice to have a person or two who believes in you. *smiles*