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These gutka sellers try to dissuade their clients!

Passers-by stop to listen to speakers on dangers of tobacco at a street corner meeting organised by Vasavi Club to mark the No Tobacco Day in Berhampur on Saturday.

BERHAMPUR: Kailash Chandra Sahu coaxes his customers to do away with the habit of chewing gutka although he sells it at his small tea stall in the city.

Some small shop owners of the city have started their personal tirade against gutka. They have understood the danger of chewing tobacco especially that comes in small pouches. But selling gutka is part of their livelihood. So, many have not stopped selling it. Kailash has come up with a unique lure to coax his customers to leave the gutka-chewing habit. He has announced that if any one of his regular gutka customer leaves this bad habit completely then he will be granted a free cup of medicated lemon tea every morning for a month. Kailash is famous for his medicated lemon tea. “I surely add my advice against gutka while handing over gutka to my customers,” he said. He gets disheartened when someone claims of leaving gutka chewing but returns to the habit after a few days. “People say they chew gutka to kill boredom but I do not have to chew tobacco although I may be into this monotonous profession of making tea throughout the day,” he said.

Similarly any one asking for gutka at the shop of R.Venugopal of Giri market is sure to get a long lecture on the vagaries of chewing tobacco. He has stopped selling gutka at his shop for the past few months. He decided not to sell it when he came to know about the carcinogenic effect of gutka and tobacco. He advises the gutka chewer who had come to his shop to substitute gutka with tulsi leaves, dried amla, ginger etc, which are beneficial for health. Balaram Panigrahy, a tea stall owner of SNT road, has completely stopped sale of gutka in his kiosk. Kiosks of these anti gutka activists also have some interesting posters which are being promoted by the the city unit of the Asaram Bapu Satsang. One terrorising poster has gruesome pictures of oral cancer patients with the catch line ‘Would you want this to happen to your mouth?’. They also have humorous poster where addictions like gutka chewing have been described as point values to gain easy access to funeral ground.

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