India, May 31 -- S moking, when I was growing up, generally started at boyhood, when you are struggling to become a man. Cigarette advertising back then used to be associated with 'manhood'. Macho film stars or models with such an appearance would normally feature in cigarette ads. It was presented as a symbol of machismo and style. Of course, there was a statutory warning with it, but that's an age when warnings are read as challenges. The rebel in you is fledgling to break free. Little does one know at that age that nicotine is a highly addictive chemical substance. By the time you crossed over to some wisdom and were at peace with your adulthood, it was late. You were addicted. Then starts a struggle to quit. But you are deeply addicted to it. Also, you are still at an age where you give an adult damn. You think you are Iron Man. But no one is. What I personally learnt was that cigarette will never forgive you. Never. It will hit back sooner or later. In some form or the other. By the time I was in my mid-30s, I was smoking a pack of 20 a day. By now other signs of manhood had visibly set in. Now it was a style statement. Which brand do you smoke? The mild one or the strong one? But the sane side of you knew you needed to quit. There are phases of quitting. Some last three days, some seven. Then you run into months of not smoking. Then creeps in a feeling that now I don't need it. But you are wrong. You light one, and you go back to where you were in two days. Then you quit quitting. Then three years later, you start trying again. Ninety-nine per cent of smokers I know want to quit. They are struggling. So, I always tell youngsters never to start. In my opinion it is way rarer to turn into an alcoholic than to turn into a deeply addicted smoker. I have known smokers smoking after a heart attack, after a heart procedure. It is so addictive. I got lucky. Five years back, one day I said, Enough. I had tried no less than 20 times during my thirty-plus years of smoking; one day I quit. I just quit. I tried some alternate addictions, but now I am clean. My pillow doesn't stink anymore. It is a great feeling to ask for non-smoking public spaces. Now I wonder why I smoked ever because after a point cigarettes do nothing to you. You smoke because you smoke. It is a chemical that keeps you hooked. Cross that line, and you see the futility - actually, the damage. Thankfully there was enough support around me, like my younger brother Anupam, who quit a month before me, and my son Shlok, who hates the idea of smoking. So here is a final word to youngsters on the verge of starting for whatever reason. Not starting is way easier than quitting because once you start, you will want to quit, and then it will be way tougher. And if you don't quit, it will hit you hard. Very hard. So, don't start. Anubhav Sinha is the director of films such as Ra.One, Mulk, Article 15 and Thappad...