Union health minister Dr Anbumani Ramadoss last week made the astounding claim that four chief ministers and 150 Members of Parliament were among those lobbying against making the display of anti-smoking images on beedi and cigarette packets mandatory. Thankfully, the man in the picture is no longer MP. Else, could he have safely been expected to be the 151st parliamentarian to bat for the tobacco giants in the name of the tobacco farmers?
The man in the picture is, of course, Srikantadatta Narasimharaja Wodeyar, the erstwhile scion of the royal family of Mysore and the former Mysore MP. Wearing a cap of the erstwhile tiger balm gardens in Singapore, the new president of the Karnataka State Cricket Association takes a leisurely drag at the Gangothri Glades stadium on the campus of the University of Mysore, venue of the Karnataka-Rajasthan Ranji Trophy match.
The neck chain, the finger ring, and the watch are all very obvious. What, pray, could the scar on the left hand be?
Photograph: Karnataka Photo News
It may be a battle scar ……
Is it really necessary to “mother” these smokers and ‘hide’ the cigarette jars from them? Surely if they want to smoke let them. why all this tamasha of display of anti-smoking images on the pack etc?
Side-effect of Tiger Balm? Hope all is well.
Mrignayani Says: why all this tamasha of display of anti-smoking images on the pack etc?
I had the same question long time back, but then realized that it was a way to mock at the smokers about their inability to understand pictures and words. Even children know what the pictures are about, why dont adults follow?
instead of taking a picture of the serene gangothri glades somebody took a picture of a picture of a celebrity smoking? we need more people in the schools learning IIT attitude and demystify all this mystic nonsense. between gargya balki, ajaatashatru, yagnyavalkya, gauDapaada and UG we have more than mystic thinkers thank you. if we want to see such nonsense will we not tune into oprah and her desi counter part chopra?
10 things u never knew about….cigarettes
1. Urea, a chemical compound that is a major component
in urine, is used to add “flavor” to cigarettes.
2. The United States is the only major cigarette
market in the world in which the percentage of women
smoking cigarettes (22%) comes close to the number of
men who smoke (35%). Europe has a slightly larger gap
(46% of men smoke, 26% of women smoke), while most
other regions have few women smokers. The stats:
Africa (29% of men smoke, 4% of women smoke);
Southeast Asia (44% of men, 4% of women), Western
Pacific (60% of men, 8% of women).
3. The U.S. states with the highest percentage of
smokers are Kentucky (28.7%), Indiana (27.3%), and
Tennessee (26.8%), while the states with the fewest
are Utah (11.5%), California ( 15.2%), and Connecticut
(16.5%).
4. The nicotine content in several major brands is
reportedly on the rise. Harvard University and the
Massachusetts Health Department revealed that between
1997 and 2005, the amount of nicotine in Camel,
Newport and Doral cigarettes may have increased by as
much as 11 percent.
5. Men who smoke are more likely to experience
erectile dysfunction. Smoke 10 or fewer cigarettes a
day and your risk of dysfunciton is 16% greater than
non-smokers; 11 – 20 cigarettes a day has been linked
to a 36% rise in erectile problems; and men who smoked
more than 20 cigarettes a day have a 60% greater
chance of dysfunction.
6. In 1970, President Nixon signed the law that placed
warning labels on cigarettes and banned television
advertisements for cigarettes. The last date that
cigarette ads would have been permitted on TV was
extended a day, from December 31, 1970 to January 1,
1971 to allow the television networks one last cash
windfall from cigarette advertising in New Year’s Day
football games.
7. Cigarettes are the single most-traded item on the
planet, with approximately 1 trillion being sold from
country to country each year. At a global take of more
than $400 billion, it’s one of the world’s most
largest industries.
8. U.S. cigarette manufacturers now make more money
selling cigarettes to countries around the globe than
they do selling to Americans.
9. Just 4 cigarette brands — including the popluar
American brands Marlboro, Kool and Kent — own roughly
70% of the global cigarette market.
10. According to the World Health Organization,
approximately 25% of cigarettes sold around the world
are smuggled
The scar maybe due to some curse?
Its not a scar.. its Anbumani’s shadow ;-)