Roll Your Own

I belong to the roll-your-own fraternity as I smoke rokok daun ever since coming back to live in the village 10 years ago. Most of the villagers roll their own rokok daun, tufts of black Javanese tobacco rolled in strips of dried nipah shoots. With the recent hike in cigarette prices, many townsfolks are switching to rolling their own too. Rolling your own rokok daun requires patience and skill; expert rollers can do it while driving a car. Both acts are equally bad for your health, I agree.

Last Saturday, I threw away my rokok daun before getting in a taxi. The taxi driver told me that it was alright to smoke in his taxi as he also smoked rokok daun. He has been smoking for 38 of the last 40 years. He stopped smoking for two years on doctor's orders but returned to the habit when he found that he didn't get any healthier. He was an expert roller because he reached out for his tobacco and nipah leaves in his centre console while telling me about all this and started to roll one rokok daun. I was sitting in the front seat so I secured the safety belt, just in case.

How come, I asked. He lighted his rokok daun and continued his story. His appetite improved and had to have four big meals a day. He began to put on a lot of weight and went out of breath easily everytime he tried to do something as simple as taking a walk. He couldn't even wash his taxi without panting for breath. I have heard this kind of weird story before but never a first-person account like this one. I shuddered at the prospect of being helplessly fat and breathless. I took out my tobacco pouch and started to roll my own rokok daun.

I had planned to stop smoking or at least reduce my tobacco consumption beginning this Ramadan. But, now this.