You sit up and though your hands and feet feel a bit sore, there is a perfect freshness about every thing. The grass seems greener, the air seems cleaner and all around you there are smiling faces. For a minute you wonder whether you are a heaven but it takes you only a moment to realize that you are still on earth. But it seems to be a very different earth indeed. You get up to walk and you feel fresher than you ever felt in a very long time.

A Second Chance

          You have done it, you have managed to quit smoking and what you have now is a whole new life. It is almost as if you have been given a second chance. This life of yours is like a new gift. You know better than any one else what you have been through and how difficult it was to get through that horrid tunnel. But yet you survived like many others. You shudder at the very thought of going back there.

          As you walk on you can see the other end of the tunnel as well and standing in front of it is an endless queue of people. They all seem to be waiting to enter the tunnel and they all have lighted cigarettes in their hands. Just beside this long queue there is another small line of people who are walking away from the tunnel. 

          They are obviously the people who failed to make it through the tunnel. They walk away with their heads hanging low. If you care to take a closer look at them, you can see that their eyes are listless, their faces are glum, their teeth are stained with nicotine and as they breathe they let of a wheezing sound. Every now and then they let out a rasping cough that seems to hit at the very vitals of their bodies.